Hello Everybody in the FML!!!!  I have been reading this list for several
months and It is my first mail.
 
We have serious troubles here (me and my little angel "Ferri").  I am
really worried and scared of what could happen to my poor fuzzy, I hope
that somebody there could give me some advices.
 
Everything started last Friday 4 June.  I came back home at 11 PM and Ferri
(a 6 months, male, MF, sable ferret) was limping, he obviusly had his left
hand injured.  He had no muscle tone in all his arm.  Saturday early in the
morning I took him to one of the really scarse vets in Mexico city that
know something about ferrets.  The radiography showed that all his bones
were fine and at the right place, but he might have received a very strong
hit probably with a door (there is woman that help us with the cleaning of
the house that may have caused the accident but she said she didn9t see
anything strange that day).  The vet injected in his arm Dexametasone and
ordered to keep Ferri in his cage for 10 days.  Sunday morning Ferri9s arm
was very inflammate and all day we was sleeping, he lost appetite but he
still ate some of his food (IAMS from eukanuba mixed with Ferret Food from
HARTZ) and still drank on his own.  Monday he started having high
temperature, I did not use a termometer but you knew he has temperature
because of his nose, ears and hot belly.  In the night he started making
noises while breathing, like having phlegm in his loungs.  Tuesday morning
we went again to the vet (It is a long trip of 1 and a half hour from our
home to the veterinary), and he diagnosed that Ferri because of the injury
of his arm was immunosupressed and got a cold that went down to his
bronchus.  Because Ferri stopped drinking and eating the instructions were
to give him an electrolyte solution called Pedialyte, 9ml every 6 hours.
2cm of Ferretive every 4 hours.  Amoxicilin (plus an expectorant whose name
I don9t remember now) 1ml every 8 hours.  Neo-melubrin (metoxasol/dipirone
as antipiretic) 3 drops every 12 hours.
 
Oh my poor baby, this morning I thought he would start to get better, but
he is weaker and weaker, although his arm is slightly less bigger than
yesterday.  He stopped doing the noise while breathing but breaths in an
excited manner.  The fever has stopped too.  He don9t want to drink but
accepts the Pedialyte solution when forced into his mounth with a seringe.
The ferretive gel (this kind of Ensure for ferrets) is something that he
really doesn9t want to eat but I hadto feed him anyway.  The last time I
tried him to feed him this gel, few minutes later he started vomiting
everything including the Pedialyte I gave him half an hour before, this
make me think of choosing something else for feeding him.  How about
this famous Duck Soup?  And the worst comes with the antibiotic and the
antipiretic because he hates the taste and it is a real fight to force
him taking his drugs.  He is too weak for walking, and even awake, he
wants to close his eyes, he just want to sleep.
 
I am really worried about him I don9t know if he will survive and I still
don9t understand how everything happened this fast, I still remember his
smiling face, last Friday morning and can9t avoid start crying.
 
Thank you for allowing me to share this story.  This is my first Ferret and
there are many things I ignore about taking care of him when he is ill like
this.
 
Cathie (A desparate mom.)
[Posted in FML issue 2706]