I'm hoping someone in FMLland can help us. Lemke our 2.5yo neutered male MF
is seriously ill & has our vet (who's very experienced with ferrets)
stumped. sorry this is so lengthy I'm hoping witha detailed descrition
someone will recognize something...
Background:
we've all been trading flus back & forth over the winter & Lem lost weight
during one round which he hasnt yet recovered. down to 2lb from just under
3. no signs of illness for the last 2 or 3 weeks till now. we'd been
feeding him "ferret soup" Totally ferret softened in warm water in addtion
to his regular food to try & fatten him back up.
Symptoms so far:
Saturday AM: threw up, may have had some human hair in stool
Sunday AM: threw up again & found evidence of one other previous episode
gave petromalt.
slightly dehydrated, since he's free roam with another ferret couldnt tell
if he'd passed any stool recently or not.
was a little "wobbly" might have been rear end weakness, maybe overall...
but still very active
called vet, was told to withold food for @ 6 hours & give pedialite
suspected partial blockage
isolated in bathroom for observation
Sunday PM
responded well to pedialite, eventually passed slightly wet stool
remained normally active
after Vet gave the all clear, gave "ferret soup", which he ate well. we
watched closely for @ 1 hour after feeding & no adverse reactions.
Monday AM, seemed completely recovered
ate "ferret soup" & solid food
gave a little pedialite "just in case & we headed out to work & from there
directly to a friends house so didnt get home till 11pm
Monday PM: discovered at least 3 spots where he had thrown up
gave more pedialite, still active
Tuesday AM - off to the vets as soon as they opened.
still active
Xrays taken, no blackage shown
bloodwork, mostly fine, but elevated white cell count, insulin levels normal
kept for observation
temperature @ 102
Tuesday early PM
passing fairly normal stools, no vomiting episodes still active
LatePM vet called - sudden fever of 105, very woozy & out of it.
Gave antibiotic & used external cooling to lower temperature.
since they dont have anyone in the office overnight we fetched him home for
observation & to keep his temperature under control.
very out of it, but glad to be home, temperature remained stable @ 101
through night.
Weds AM temp still 101, took back to vets, still disoriented. showing more
perkiness now than when we dropped him off. still passing stools, no
vomitting, continuing antibacterial regime
Sent his bloodwork off for a parvovirus test just in case, but I gather it
takes a couple weeks for results :-<
Current theory is that he's had a series of viral infections and the latest
one just weakened him enough to let in a secondary bacterial infection, but
we dont really know...
Any usefull advise greatly appreciated.
We're very worried...
Eden and her 3 guys: Misha, Lemke & Bill (the human one)
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[Posted in FML issue 1863]
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