We lost our little girl Bambi suddenly, a few weeks ago.  I'm hoping
someone can help us out with a couple of questions.
 
We had taken Bambi (6yrs.) and her sister Slinky(61/2yrs.) in for for their
annual check up and vaccines on a Friday.  We split the vaccines up, as we
had a problem in the past with another ferret having a reaction to the
distemper vaccine.
 
Our vet checked both out and gave them their rabies vaccine .  Slinky had
a couple of mast cell tumors to be removed, but aside from that both were
healthy.
 
Everything was fine with Bambi all weekend.  She was playing, eating, and
being her normal sweet self.  Monday evening I went to their room to say
good night.  To my surprise Bambi was as yellow as the sun.  I was
concerned because back in '96 we almost lost her to some sort of liver
problem.  We pulled her through with Predisone, Baytril and alot of TLC.
Tuesday morning I went to check on her and was shocked that not only was
she more yellow, she also had hind end weakness.  We rushed her to the vet
where she ran a bunch of tests and kept her overnight.  The tests showed
that she did have liver problems but the results didn't match up to the
test results that were run in '96.  My first thought was that she was
having a reation to the rabies vaccine, but the vet said no.  We brought
her home Wednesday afternoon with Baytril and Metronidazole.  The vet
figured she would be better in her own surroundings.  We had to hand feed
her as she would not eat or drink on her own.  We could also see she was
going down hill fast.  Thursday morning she took a small amount of food and
water but she was getting alot more lethargic, showing little interest in
food and her stools were very dark and grainy.  I talked with the vet in
the early afternoon she said to take the Metronidazole away as it might be
upsetting her, she also said to keep an eye on her stools as she feared she
may be bleeding internally.  Her condition worsened till around 5:00p.m.
at which time she was laying in her own feces and was losing body heat.  I
called the vet to tell her what was going on, and that we were bringing her
in.  When we got to the vet she was shocked at how fast she had gone down
hill.  The vet figured that her liver had completly shut down.
 
Our sweet Bambi was helped to rainbow bridge at 6:00p.m.
 
A post mortom was done on Bambi, and it showed that her liver was bad and
that her gallbladder didn't look good.  We still don't know what caused
the problem to begin with.
 
My question is; could what happened to Bambi be a result of the rabies
vaccine or be just a coincidence?
 
Does it make a difference where the vaccine is given?  I have read that
there is more of a chance for a reaction if the injection is given in the
scruff.  The vets, at the clinic we go to, are very ferret knowledgeable.
The vet that we usually have gives the vaccines in the hind end area.  We
had the other vet this time and she gives the injections in the scruff.
She said it makes no difference.  We would really like to know if there is
a difference where they recieve their vaccine as Slinky has to go in this
week for her Distemper shot.  After losing Bambi, that soon after a
vaccine, we are a little concerned about Slinky.
 
To make all this worse I'm worried about our remaing ferret Slinky.  Not
even a month before we lost Bamby we lost another ferret, Frisky to
Lymphoma.  Poor Slinky was just starting to get over the loss of her, now
she has lost her last play mate as well .  All ferrets had been together
since they were 6 months old.
 
We spend alot of time with her but she just runs around looking for her
friends and has no interest in playing with us.  She likes people but she
has always been more ferret oriented.
 
We are considering getting her a friend , but don't know if that would
stress her even more.  It's really hard to see her like this.  She was so
full of energy.
 
Any advice would be much appeciated.
 
Sorry this is so long.
 
Thanks in Advance
 
Cathy
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Cathy and Don Ruetten
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http://home.golden.net/~ruetten/
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[Posted in FML issue 2688]