Hi all-
An update... we still need help.  If anyone out there has had experience
with this, please let me know.  My vet is currently treating the symptoms,
but doesn't know what this can be... and Bean may not be able to survive
this.  Once again, my Bean has the strange parvo-like --whatever-it-is that
has been causing her stomach to not work.  This happened two years ago, but
with slightly different symptoms and results.
 
Right know, I'm giving her injections of Zofran every twelve hours, as well
as injections of amoxycillin, and oral Pepto-Bismol.  She usually acts very
hungry and will eat anything at this point... but her stomach keeps
rejecting everything except water and tiny amounts of Nutri-Cal.  She
doesn't seem to have a fever.
 
Her blood tests didn't reveal "anything remarkable." Nor did her laporotomy.
 
More details below...
This time, her symptoms confused me.  Tuesday morning, for the first time
since before her surgery in October, she had -what I thought was- a classic
hyopglycemic seizure.  A mild one, but she was out of it for the rest of the
day.  Then that night she began vomiting.  (In retrospect, she probably
hadn't had a seizure that morning, but rather had just vomited, making it
seem she was drooling and disoriented.) I took her to Timberlyne and Dr
Diehl WEdnesday morning.  They gave her a Barium series of x-rays, palpated
her belly, and came up with nothing.  They gave her anti-emetic
(anti-vomiting) drugs, and they DID NOT WORK.
 
They pumped her full of fluids, thinking she probably had a blockage.  I
brought her home, and her spirits were very good.  She was very hungry, but
would vomit within 20 minutes every time I tried to give her --anything-- to
eat.  Nutrical.  Petromalt.  ANYTHING.
 
Thursday I brought her back as soon as they opened, and they took care of
her while I was at work.  More of the same as the day before.  At lunchtime,
I told Dr Diehl to do the surgery because we couldn't wait anymore.  They
did the surgery in the evening, and found NOTHING wrong WHATSOEVER.  Nothing
wrong with her pancreas, stomach, adrenals, intestines, or reproductive
organs (or lack thereof.)
 
She's recovering beautifully from the surgery-- no problem there.
 
Dr Diehl admits he's stumped.  He's guessing that at this point it's either
a metabolic disorder or perhaps cancer of the intestines or stomach.  He
decided not to risk a biopsy of anything while he had Bean in surgery, lest
it further irritate the GI tract.
 
THE GOOD NEWS is that he decided to try a new, rarely used "prohibitively
expensive" drug (called Zofran, I believe) usually used on dogs with Parvo.
The drug basically is one of the strongest anti-emetics.  It's worked about
half of the time with Bean so far... so, she's not in AS MUCH danger of
starving as she was.  (Yes, this basically is what was happening.  Despite
the fact she was very hungry and wanted to eat, her stomach was rejecting
absolutely everything, including water.  ) With this drug, she's been
keeping water down regularly, as well as tiny amounts of A/D and nutrical.
 
This is at least the third time she's almost died.  She's not out of the
woods yet, though... so please send some "healthy ferret vibes" her way.
I'll be happy once she's fat and terrorizing the household again.
 
Anyone seen these symptoms before?  She hasn't had any diarrhea, by the way,
nor any green / black/ grainy stool.  Just the "smacking her gums" thing
ferrets do when they don't feel good, and the vomiting.
 
SHe's sleeping atthe moment, after vomiting a little bit of fluid this
morning.  Yesterday, she kept down all her Nutrical after noon until this
morning.
 
Please help, if you have any ideas.
 
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