I've just returned from the vet's office this early Sunday morning.  Our
little Uma, who was only 3 years old, was having trouble breathing when
I checked on the fuzzies last night before bedtime.  She's always the
active one, begging to get out of her condo to play.  But last night she
was just lying down with labored breathing.  She had no previous health
problems, and to make a long story short, the vet said she had a probable
bacterial pneumonia.  We had to have her put down, and I'm devastated
because this came on so suddenly!  The vet said she probably had been
sick for a few days, but didn't show any serious symptoms until it was
too late.  She said that cats and ferrets are known to do this.
 
I was up with Uma all night after speaking to the vet around 12:30 a.m.
She even ate 1/3 of a jar of Gerber chicken baby food around 3:00a.m.
this morning.  Can a veterinarian on this list tell me what happened?
When our vet gave her oxygen, Uma began to have a blood-tinged nasal
discharge.  Not long afterwards, she really started to bleed from her
nose, as if she were hemorrhaging.  The x-ray showed very little space in
her lungs that was allowing her to breathe.  Even her heart was almost
obstructed from view.  How could she have been so bad so quickly?
 
And something else I'm wondering about: A couple of weeks ago Uma had
gotten some poop on her fur in their cage, so I turned the bath tub
faucet on to just rinse the small area off instead of giving her a full
bath.  As she turned her head, she ran it under the running water very
briefly, and then shook her head to sling the water off.  Could I have
caused her to develop an aspiration pneumonia?  We never heard her cough
the first time since then.  Her appetite has been good.  This just
happened so very fast!  Someone please advise.
 
Broken-hearted in Alabama.........
 
Rhea and the now 6 fuzzies: Rascal, Oliver, Elvira, Chessie,
Rising Moon & Tubby
[Posted in FML issue 4306]