Dear Barb and all others with ECE,
I am in Alaska and I to feel like this is a nightmare that I will never
wake up from.  I am beginning to feel frantic and frustrated.  This has
been going on for over 2 months.  I have a shelter and currently have 17
ferrets.  They have all gone through this, unfortunately not all at the
same time.  I now only have 2 that are still very sick.  Roxie is eating
and drinking on her own finally but this morning I noticed that her stools
were back to the consistancy of water.  I am watching her food and water
intake very carefully.  Chena is the one I am most worried about.  He has
been on sub q fluids for about 3 weeks now and has eaten nor drank anything
on his own.  I feed and water him with a medicine syringe every 2-3 hours.
My vet suggested taking him off the Clavamox, because that can sometimes
cause diarhea.  He is getting Kaopectate 2-3 times a day, but that no
longer seems to be helping.  It got better for about a week after I started
kim on the Kao but now we a back to what looks like pure water for
stools.Just today I started to gime him some yogurt in the hopes of
introducing some good bacteria.  I jaust want to wring my hands.  I am going
to give it 1 week more then run a CBC to see if there is something more we
can do for him.  If not I may seriously have to look at letting him go.
 
He is absolutely the most depressed looking little guy and all he does is
sigh that heavy sigh every time I pull him out of his cage and just peers
at me with the most sorrowful expression.  It is so hard when you know that
you are doing all the right things but they are just not strong enough to
fight it themselves.  If only I could give him a little of my gumption...
 
Please let me know how yours are doing.  Prayers and warm fuzzies to you
and yours and I hope there is a cure soon.
 
     TTFN<
          Diana and The Ferret Farm
[Posted in FML issue 2426]