To refresh everyone on Sprout's history.

He had on and off loose stools some were green not neon green but he
had a couple that were green. He would go from normal to loose and
brown to soft, to green sometime seedy sometimes not. He never acted
sick and always seemed to be fine.

Then one day (a little over two weeks ago I noticed he looked thinner.
We weighed him and he was 1 lb 13.5 ounces, which was the lightest
he had ever been. We took him to the vet and he had a mass plus was
painful. He had surgery almost two weeks ago. The mass was a lymph
node, he had an enlarged left adrenal (accounts for his increased
aggressiveness toward another ferret, it was removed). Blood work
showed decreased blood proteins and albumin. Biopsies showed lots of
inflammation and fusion of villi. After surgery his weight climbed
to 2 lbs even.

Since then he has hovered around 1 lb 15 ounces (today it was 1 lbs
14'ish ounces).

He is getting 0.5 ml of a 1mg/1ml prednisolone twice a day with food
and pepcid ac. He is getting 45 - 50 mls of chicken or turkey baby
food mixed with ensure to a shake consistency (warmed). He eats it
off the end of a syringe. He has been getting this 4 times a day.

Our vet says that ECE is a viral bug and he doesn't have an antiviral
medication that he can give. The literature says that he needs
supportive care and it can take 3 - 6 months for him to get better.

I really worry for him, he is a sweet ferret and I hope we are not
fighting losing battle.

If anyone has some advice I would love to hear it. I have received a
couple recipes for duk soup, from a couple very helpful people. I've
got them saved in my email and I need to print them off. One of them
may be what we need to use, what I would like is a good recipe that
will do the most good for a ferret in Sprout's condition.

We are going to try and make some up over the weekend.

Thank you

Mike

[Posted in FML 6635]