Hello
I wanted to give you an update on Angel, my little girl with ascites. I
almost lost her last Sunday, she, her mum Jilly, brother Jack and Bella were
in the cage at night (they don't get on with my 3 "new" rescues so either
the 4 or the new 3 spend half the day in the cage) and when I got them out
the next morning, Angel didn't move. I took her out and she was limp like
she was going to die. I bet she didn't eat or drink all night. So I took
her out of the room and laid her down on the floor- didn't move. So I
hurried downstairs to do some re-hydrate drink for her and open her can of
Ensure. Luckily I DID decide to buy the stuff the day before, I almost
thought leave it until Monday...
So I did the re-hydrate powder and mixed it with water and I gave it to
Angel with a syringe and then I force fed the Ensure and slowly she started
moving again and lifted her head. Over the day she ate the Ensure, she
licked it while I squeezed it slowly out of the syringe. But she was so
weak, when I let her out of her cage (I separated her from all the others
then), she would walk 3 steps and then lie down. By the night she was a
bit stronger and had a good walk through the lounge and ate quite a bit of
apple. I had some apple in the bin which I had taken off my guinea pigs
and Angel took the apple out of the bin so I thought I'd do her some and
she loved it.
Over the next few days I gave her Ensure every day, I prepared different
types of duck soup but Angel didn't like any of them but she drank the
Ensure so I thought that's better than nothing at all. But I always had to
take her on my lap, dip my finger into the Ensure and then she licked my
finger and slowly started to lick the Ensure out of her bowl but she never
drank it on her own in her cage, I always had to sort of feed her. So
that's why I went to bed at 1.00 a.m. every day and got up at 7.00 a.m.
because I didn't want her to go without food for too long. By Wednesday
she ate a few minced morsels, it's a dog treat/ food that the kids usually
adore so I bought some in case Angel liked to eat it. She was with me in
the shop and ate some morsels there so I was happy as it was the first
proper food she ate. Thursday I bought some Whiskas cat food as the kids
always liked that as a treat as well so I offered some to Angel and she
ate it so since Thursday she's been eating again. Last night she ate 53
kibbles of the Whiskas food, I know it's not the best food but at least
Angel is eating.
We still don't know what's wrong with her. I consulted a few vets and sent
them Angel's results and one vet said Angel had a liver tumour and was
dying. As anybody can imagine, I was sooo upset and cried all day long.
Then I asked the other vets whether they thought the same but they said
they couldn't say she was dying just from the results. A German vet said
it could still be the heart, the heart could cause the ascites and the
ascites is pressing on the liver causing the liver to "get sick". She said
I should put Angel on heart medicine just to see whether this helps as the
heart medicine can't do any damage. At the same time Dr. Bruce Williams
wrote to me and said liver disease was so rare in ferrets and most, if not
all, the ascites he's seen in ferrets came from heart disease. So why
should my little Angel have a liver tumour against the odds, especially
when she's so young.
So Tuesday Angel got her first 1/8th of a heart tablet, the day before she
also got a liver stimulant injection and by Wednesday she looked a lot
better. We don't know what is helping her which isn't so good but at least
Angel is a bit better rather than worse. So Angel now gets 2 liver
stimulant injections a week, 2 tablets for her ascites and her heart tablet
a day. She hates taking her medicine but is getting better. And she also
lost 100g which means that 100g of the ascites must have gone.
Anyway, I thought I write and let you know what's happening.
Best wishes
Ulrike and the 10 kids
--
http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~ferret/
[Posted in FML issue 2346]
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