Hi, everyone,

Izzie is a 2 year old female, spayed ferret, who I adopted from a
shelter in February. She has no prior history of medical problems.
Over the last three days (including today) she's been throwing up
or dry heaving. Yesterday evening she stopped taking food or treats
voluntarily. I did get her to take a bit of gravy with cajoling and
when I tried to give her a bit more a few hours later she threw it up.
Since late last night she literally has been unable to keep anything
but water down. She still drinks on her own and is not dehydrated. She
also is clearly uncomfortable and has been moaning in her sleep. Izzie
has also lost weight and she was a skinny little nothing to begin with.

Her vet believes the problem is helicobacter. She also saw a lot of
gas in Izzie's system but the X-ray showed no blockage. Izzie's vet
prescribed 1.0ml sulcrafate twice a day, 0.25ml amoxicillin twice a day
and 0.25ml metronidazole twice a day. The original idea was to give all
three at once as in this case it was OK if the sulcrafate bonded with
the other meds. I made the point that Izzie couldn't keep anything down
and was told to try giving the sulcrafate first.

The good news is that Izzie kept the sucrafate down. The bad news is
that half an hour later when I gave her the other two meds she promptly
threw up. Yes, she had swallowed them and yes, they had been in her
system for maybe two minutes. I'm also supposed to syringe feed her
some duck soup to get some nutrition into her. I'll try that in tiny
bits as the night progresses because, up until now, anything that goes
in comes back out a couple of minutes later. The last half syringe I
gave her stayed down so far.

Short of hospitalization and injectable meds (which is what the vet
said we may have to do) is there anything I can do to keep the
medications in her. The only thing I can think of is separating the
amoxicillin from the metronidazole to give her less at once in the
hope that will be easier on her system.

Oh, and the vet said the metranidazole was chicken flavored and
wouldn't be so hard to give. Izzie disagrees.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

All the best,
Caity and the terrific trio
Izzie, Tata and Liira

[Posted in FML 7833]