Folks, here is a compliation of two personal e-mails I sent out re: Sasha's
medical adventure. I hope these symptoms help someone to help Sasha ...
>---------------------------------------
>From: [log in to unmask] (Katherine Fritz)
>Subject: Re: Ferret List Issue 393
>Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 13:30:10 -0500
>To Stephen Dennison:
>Has Sasha been seen by a vet? It sounds like she should be seen by
>one right away. Do you have a ferret-knowledgeable vet? If not, let
>us know where you area, and I'm sure we can direct you to one.
I took Sasha to my regular vet 5 days ago He is, by his own admission, not
ferret knowledgeable. He has, however, treated a lot of ferrets and spayed my
other female when she became heat-anemic. We lost her, but the procedure
was done well and she *did* start to recover, but even with a transfusion
she was unable to fight her way back. The breeder told me that she had
probably gotten down too far to handle the surgery, and that she probably
wouldn't have survived with *any* treatment, but he suggested inducing false
pregnancy next time something like this happened and the vet concurred.
I live in the greater cleveland area (ohio), and would greatly appreciate
any information you might be able to provide me. My vet said he would
welcome any help from a more ferret knowledgeable source, so even a phone
number of a vet that was willing to consult with him would be helpful.
History:
Sasha recieved a penicillin shot, a hormone shot, and was checked for
anemia... her temp was 104 and she didn't appear to be dehydrated. In the
last 5 days, she has subsisted on nothing but Felo-Vite, a Nutrical/
Sustical clone for Cats (the vet recommended it because it has a Taurine
component and he said that was good for ferrets.) The vet also gave me
amoxicillin that I have been giving her 2 times a day. She rallied around
greatly in the first 3 days, but has begun sliding since. Today I had to
force the Felovite into her and I can barely force her to drink. She has a
great deal of difficulty swallowing and her breathing is short and labored.
There was some discharge around her nose when I dropped her off at the
Vet's this morning. He looked down her throat and saw no obstructions or
tumors. He has her in an incubator (her temp was down to 100.2 from 104 5
days earlier) to warm her up a bit and is considering x-rays, for which he
says he will have to anesthesize her.
>I've forgotten whether you said she was drinking. This is VERY important!!
I got some milk in her at first, and she was still drinking right up to her
first visit to the vet, but she hasn't taken much if any liquid in the last
day. *This* is the primary reason I took her to the vet today, and he said
she is a bit dehydrated. He will be introducing fluids into her this
morning.
>Dehydration would surely kill her. You might want to separate her from
>Bear so that you can monitor her intake and output more closely.
I took her out of Bear's cage (outside in my barn) and brought her into the
house for warmth. She has a comfortable cage in the house and *plenty* of
visitors (my 8 indoor cats are intrigued and they get along famously when I
let her out to play with them), and I look in on her every hour or so. Like
I said, she made a *big* turn-around at first... this visit to the vet
showed a .2 lb weight increase over just 5 days ago, but now her energy
level has dropped off, she's not eating the Felo-Vite, and I'm very worried.
Any help would be appreciated... she is as a child to me and I will spare
no expense to bring her around. I don't, however, want to make her suffer
needlessly if it becomes obvious she can't survive.
Thanks again,
Stephen Dennison
Nancy,
Thank you for your reply, and I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to
you. I took Sasha to the vet and, though none of them were ferret `experts'
, they did a cbc on her and found her red count to be well within normal
limits. Her temperature was a little elevated, but she wasn't dehydrated at
the time. That was last thursday after I consulted the mailing list. I got
a supplement called Felo-Vite, nutrical for cats, and I have been feeding
that almost exclusively since thursday. The vet gave her a hormone shot (
precaution for heat-related problems), a penicillin shot, and I have been
giving her amoxicillin twice a day since then.
She rallied around for a few days, regaining strength and even appearing to
have a bit of a belly, but she is going downhill again. This morning she
won't touch the Felo-vite, and she hasn't drunk anything but what I forced
into her last night. She appears to have great difficulty swallowing
anything. She grinds her teeth when I try to force food or liquid into her.
She's back to doing mostly nothing but sleeping, and no kind of
solid, semi-solid, or almost-liquid food I try to give her gets in. she
just keeps averting her head. The vet wants her in today to look down her
throat, but I thought I'd toss it over to you one more time with her
latest symptoms. He wants to look for tumors and change her antibiotic to a
new one called Cefadrox or something like that. He is going to give me a
liquid called Lixotonic for energy too.
>If you can, try and get her to drink some gatorade. If she's not
>eating properly she needs the electrolytes.
I have been giving her sugar-water, milk, liquified cat-food, water with
Karo syrup, and just plain water, but I have to hold her head in place and
practically shoot it into the back of her throat to get her to take any,
and most of it she just shakes all over herself and me.
>If she is dehydrated (firmly pinch the skin on the back of her neck,
>if it doesn't bounce right back then she's dehydrated -- use your other
>ferret to see what it should look like) then take her to the vet
>*IMMEDIATELY*. A dehydrated ferret will die very quickly.
I think that she's starting to dehydrate, so I'm taking her in this morning.
Still, if you have any ideas (i.e., if the sore throat symptom strikes a
chord with you), I'd love to hear it. I'm at a loss and very worried about
her.
Oh, also they said that there was an ear-mite convention going on in her
ears. I have been treating that with medicine (ear drops) as well. Could
*that* be adding to the sore throat ?
>It sounds like she had a false pregnancy, that's pretty common.
The vet says that they *induce* those in ferrets with heat-related anemia
to save them.
>Estrogen induced anemia - when ferrets false they go right back into
>heat as soon as their body figures out they aren't really pregnant.
>Does she still look like she's in heat? (is her vulva still
>enlarged?)
Nope.
>Mastitis - are her teats black?
Nope.
>Vaginal infection - Any discharge?
Nothing obvious, and since she's pretty much shrunk-up, it's even less
likely, right ?
>Let's not rule out non-reproductive causes, does she have any other
>symptoms?
The sore throat and fast, kinda labored breathing. Unfortunately, the
pattern of rallying around and then sliding downhill is all too familiar...
I lost another female to heat-induced anemia before I knew any better, and
despite heroic measures including transfusions, she had slipped too far to
save. That one broke my heart, I don't want to lose Sasha.
>diarrhea?
The day I brought her in to the vet, when he took her temp (she refused to
hold the thermometer under her tongue) she plopped out a yellow looking
mess, very loose, but I had been giving her milk to get her to take *
anything, so I imagine it loosened her up some. Since then, not much output
at all (but, given that she's taking almost exclusively Felovite, you
wouldn't expect much, right ? )
>vomiting?
None I've seen, though she makes some awful gagging noises when I try to
force liquids. It's realling killing her to swallow.
>swollen rectum?
No... I just looked.
>are you sure she's defecating, maybe it's an intestinal blockage? (pick
> up some laxative while you're out -- Laxastat, Laxatone, Petromalt, or
>any other paste-like hairball remedy. I don't think it will hurt her,
>it doesn't cause dehydration like diarrhea, it only lubricates
>everything.)
She hasn't pooped or peed much in the last week, but her intake has been
minimal. I can't gage her water intake because she keeps dumping her water
dish, a favorite game of hers.
BTW, Bear, the male that Sasha lived with is perfectly healthy except he
misses her pretty bad. He's outside still and I brought Sasha in to keep
an eye on her.
-- Stephen Dennison
(216) 433-8126 (Work - Sorry, NASA won't accept collect calls. :-))
(216) 458-6728 (Home - Reverse the charges... unless you're selling
insurance)
If you think of something and feel the need to communicate it quickly,
reverse the charges and give me a holler.
[Posted in FML issue 0398]
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