KS Bite Case, February 13, 1997, Johnson County PH, KS
We just dealt with a ferret bite case here.  The KS recs require a signed
affidavit from the owner.  The owner delivered it then PH wanted a signed
affidavit from where the ferret was purchased.  Once they had that they
wanted one from the breeder.  (sigh) I faxed 36 pages of info and FedEx'd as
much.  I contacted a handful of others and they too faxed info (Thanks to
Dick, Dr. Hoffman, Janice and whoever else may have faxed info and Dr.
Snyder, Serita, and others that called PH) I contacted the reps for that
district (18) and my district (1)and several Senators for our districts as
well, 4 of which called PH.  Kelly and I both contacted the governors office.
 
The verdict was delivered at 6:04 p.m.  There was no evidence to support
killing and testing the ferret.  Matty can go home now.  :-)
 
Molly -
Molly has our vet stumped, well sort of.  I think she may have had a stroke,
or several.  She suddenly became blind.  Then she lost the use of her back
legs.  It is as if she doesn't know they are there.  She can use them if I
stand her up on them and walk a few steps but once she falls over that's it.
She then s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s her way across the room.  Her pulse is strong in
both legs and temperature normal.  She has either an abnormal shapen large
kidney or growth and an extremely enlarged spleen.  She is alert.  Her
appetite is down and has been for some time.  She eats only when I feed her
the recipe.  Stools are normal, a little loose due to her recipe.  She is
not a surgery candidate.  We have her on PediaPred.  As far as we can
determine she is somewhere between 5-8 years old.
 
Clyde's glucose reading was below 50 (that is as low as the vet's machine
goes).  He's on PediaPred which we are doubling the dose (I had him on a low
dose till we did the glucose check) and we will add Proglycem.
 
The rest are doing very well.  The other morning when it was time to leave
for work I counted 17-20 romping, rolling and bouncing in the living room
when it was time to leave for work.  Earlier there had been 7 in the tub
playing and Bud would jump on my leg to entice me to play.  As soon as I
unattached Bud, Doc did the same thing, and as soon as he was unattached
Randa got me.  The previous bout with Clostridium seems to have passed.  We
haven't taken samples in for a re-check but the symptoms I saw are gone.
I'm making the recipe fresh at each feeding and adding Buttermilk,
Acidophilus, Primadophilus, and FOS.  Oh I add goats milk too.  Nancy lives
on a goat farm so we have access to fresh pasteurized goats milk, which by
the way, we drink too.  And from previous experience baby goats and ferrets
do get along.  They are both playful and curious but do need supervised play
when together.  :-)
 
Oh and Rikki is doing well.  She still has diarrhea (sigh) and she is
pouting because she no longer goes to school.  Her weight and spirits are
good and she does play a bit in the tube.  :-)
 
Transportation -
We are looking for transportation of 4 ferrets to Texas by March 1.  Anyone
going that way?
 
Hugs to all.  tle
[Posted in FML issue 1849]