>From:    Delta <[log in to unmask]>
>
>On Thursday I brought my 3-year-old Pepper to the vet for her annual
>rabies shot.....When I brought her home the next morning, she was quite
>a bit perkier.  But as soon as she stepped out of her travel cage my
>husband and I noticed that she was dragging her right rear foot behind
>her with the pad of the foot facing upward.  Even when she managed to
>get the foot below her with the pad side down, the toes would be curling
>
>We ended up bringing her to an emergency vet later that evening....
>
>Has anybody dealt with this sort of compression injury before?  Did it
>clear up, or was it actually permanent?..."
 
(message truncated throughout)
 
I'm obviously WAY behind on FMLs, but I thought I'd answer this.  We give
ferrets their vaccines at their scruff, but my Shannon did have the same
experience with a premed injectable prior to her dental cleaning last
year.  It took a few weeks of her walking on the top of her foot and then
just being kind of gimpy, but it didn't slow her down a whit (she just
sort of hopped along at top speed) and she's fine now.  Sometimes, no
matter how careful we are giving injections, it is possible to still hit
a nerve and cause damage-it's usually temporary in these cases, though.
I believe.  Just give it time; you could probably try water therapy, but
we didn't do anything special but give her time and try to keep her
normal activity level up.
 
Hope your girl is getting better!
 
-April AC
[Posted in FML issue 4281]