The ferret had symptoms of a leaking overfull bladder that was only
expressed in small puddles and never fully emptied, and has hind leg
problems - both legs sometimes want to move both at the same time (the
same step, so he's bunny hopping and falls over).

I was told after surgery he might be weak but the symptoms have stayed
with him since over three months ago.

So basically, he lost coordination in his back legs and his bladder
is not emptied completely. He leaks (not sure if it is from being
incontinent or from being half full or full all the time). I try to
feel the full bladder but I don't know what I am really feeling.

This happened to him directly after he woke up from surgery. My vet
sees him walk and thinks immediately it's a neurological issue. I told
him he was not like this at all before surgery, and he doesn't say
anything about that, we do an ultrasound, and him and another vet (with
me present) see nothing in the bladder, no stones or crystals. Just in
case there are crystals in the urethra, he gives me meds to acidify his
urine. It's day three and nothing has changed. There was absolutely
nothing suspect in his ultrasound so I'm not expecting anything to be
fixed by it.

He also has a hernia where a stitch was popped, and the vet says not to
worry about fixing it. I am not so sure. I wondered if you have ever
run across a situation like this. I am going to write on the FML but I
wanted to ask you too since you do surgeries there.

I'm not trying to play "blame the vet". I just want to know - since
it happened directly after the surgery when the ferret woke up -
what could have caused it so I can go about trying to treat or just
understand it. I understand that yes it could happen as a coincidence
but I've never had a single ferret develop hindleg weakness and an
inability to empty the bladder completely just overnight.

He also does not constantly search for a corner to pee in like a ferret
who is blocked. I've had plenty of regular blocked ferrets that have
had prostate issues, and they would often run to one corner, wait,
nothing happens, then they run to the other, wait, nothing happens
(this goes on for a while). He just never pees very much at a time.
When he walks forward he has several smaller puddles that he empties
out before he stops.

Since the surgery his weakness or uncoordination is exactly at the same
level. He has tried to adjust but he still falls over quite a bit and
trips a lot due to the wobbliness.

Laryssa
If anyone else has had something like this happen, please let me know.

[Posted in FML 6749]