Hello all,
Thank you all once aagain for your E-Mails.  Of course, with ECE I am still
very busy.  Hootie is now eating and drinking on his own.  He is still
taking amoxy 2x a day, but he is running and active again.  Snoball is
still kind of lethargic, and spending alot of time sleeping.  I have been
force feeding her through a syringe, but on the advice of Dr. Bruce
Williams, I stopped that and tried starting her on pllain Gerber Chicken
flavor baby food.  I started this this morning.  Though she is drinking on
her own now, she still is not eating.  The Chicken baby food was a success.
She only ate about a teaspoon and a half, but she lapped that up like it
was ferretone !!  She loved it.  Still would not eat it from the bowl, but
she ate it from my finger with no proble.  Here's the best part, I didn't
need to syringe feed it to her !!  Using Syringes adds one possiblility
that I really did'nt like.  They can very easily aspirate on some of the
fluid, therby causing apiration pneumonia.  That would definately
complicate matters.  For anyone interested, please check out Dr. Williams
web pages on ferrets at http://www.afip.org/ferrets/
 
He has a page on feeding them when they won't eat, and pages on the disease
pathology of many diseases, including ECE.  His qualifications make him
what I would definately call an Expert.  And he has ferrets of his own
also.  I still have some of the "duck soup" that I made and will continue
putting it in their cage, but for force feedings, I'm sticking with the
Chicken baby food by itself.  Snoball is eating it like a champ, and I
mixed in the amoxy so I didn't have to use the dropper for it !!
 
As to the pepto or imodium etc.... Dr. Williams told me that if the ferret
isn't having profuse diarhea that is causing severe dehydration, stopping
the diarhea can actually prolong the ferrets illness, because it does not
allow the toxins to leave the body.  As a former nurse, I know this to be
true with humans, but it's something that has to be weighed against how
much the ferret is actually losing to the diarhea.
 
While Snoball is still displaying the profuse "Greenies", She is drinking
and seems to be more active.  Activity level is the first sign of
dehydration, followed by skin turgor.  (this can be checked for by pinching
a tuft of skin up behind their neck, If it pops right back it is fine, If
it remains "Tented" for a bit, then the skin is dehydrated.)
 
So far , Skin turgor is fine, and their activity level is getting better.
 
I'm sure I'll get through this OK.  Thank you all for your well wishes and
I will keep you all up to date on Snoball and Hooties progress.
 
Oh, BTW, The new baby is doing great.  No signs of any problems yet.
 
Axe
[Posted in FML issue 2640]