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Post by Heather on Sept 20, 2010 23:24:01 GMT -5
I promised you a pic of Loki, Odin is trying to revive him but he will loose the battle. Take a close look at Loki's muzzle and lips (it's difficult but you can see it) there's no colour. Loki was very anemic. This is little Mischief. He too was anemic, not as bad as Loki but at this point in time Mischief lived for another 6 months. As you can see, your little one still has much more colour than these two ferrets. ciao
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Post by katt on Sept 21, 2010 22:23:30 GMT -5
I'd say Koda looked like Mischief at least a few days. He was looking a little better when I took the picture, but the day before had been much paler. Also, good news! Koda had several normal poops! I have been giving him a mouse a day and that seems to really be making a difference! I am still bringing him into the vet tomorrow - last time he had a good poop so I didn't bring in a fecal sample, then he got worse. Vet will probably say "he looks great! Nothing wrong here anymore!" haha Little turd of a fuzz butt. I'm still thinking some antibiotics might be in order. And I think I will definitely try to keep more whole prey in his diet... Anything else I should take note of before the appointment tomorrow? IBD, heliobacter, probiotics, vitamins, meds...
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Post by mustelidmusk on Sept 22, 2010 9:17:12 GMT -5
That's great that the whole prey may be helping. Did Koda get improve last time he had whoe prey? I've seem spontaneous iprovement with giardia and/or IBD. The correlation may or may not be related to what has been eaten.
If you're really looking for food allergy, the easiast (but not cheapest thing to do is to feed the Nature's variety lamb This would be most different from most grocery store meats(including the organ ad bone. It does contain some egg, but not. Alteraively, you an ry rdering from Hre Today.Eeven if you feed all non-poultry meat, the non-poultry organs/bone may bedifficult to find. Even if you do the expensive thing short term, you will at least get some good data.
Do you give Koda tap water? Our tap way in Boulder county has giardia. Soe ferts are VERY sensitive to the chemicals and cooties in tap water.
I think you'll be well-prepared for the vet trip. Please keep us posted.
-jennifer
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Post by katt on Sept 22, 2010 13:36:21 GMT -5
Well I spoke too soon - which makes me glad in a way because I seem to often have the luck of my animals getting better right before they go to the vet. Anyways, he had one good solid poop last night at Shane's, then one really sloppy, yucky one. Sooo not sure what the deal is. I don't think it is the water because we have very clean water here in AK - it is all glacier run off pretty much. I'll update today after the vet appt! Thanks for all of your help, as always guys!
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Post by katt on Sept 22, 2010 17:28:21 GMT -5
Well I just scribbled down what notes I could. Now time to try to convince Koda to poop, and off to the vet! Updates in a little while! Wish us luck!
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Post by katt on Sept 22, 2010 20:26:01 GMT -5
Boy oh boy do I have an update! The vet was checking Koda our and, as I kind of expected: everything looks good here, glands feel fine, liver and kidneys don't feel swollen, good coat, not too skinny, good hydration...welllll we still have a problem! haha Then, Koda graced us with a nice big slimy poop! It was a decently well formed poop, but a little gloppy and a terrible color. I was quite pleased! Anyways, the vet was like yeah that is a really bad poop - at which point I told her that, compared to his other poops that one looked great! She sent the poop in to the lab, and took a mouth swab to do a pcr for heliobacter. She was really concerned about the amount of yellow in the poop and the mucous content. We talked about possible heliobacter, ulcers, and IBD. We are still waiting on lab results for the fecal and the swab. Also - he has lost weight. When we brought him in as a baby for shots (early March), he weighed 1.18 kg, when he went in in April for his surgery he weighed 1.24 kg. He weighed in today at 1.11 kg! Think about it proportionately to his relative size and, IMO, that is a lot to lose even if it's not too much it's still not healthy. Here are the meds she prescribed: - Amoxicillin - 0.5ml every 12 hours until gone
- Sucralfate (carafate) - 1/8 tablet mixed in a slurry every 6 hours (4 times a day) or every 8 hours (3 times a day) given a minimum of 1 hour before the other meds
- Metronidazole - 0.4ml once a day for 10 days
- Pepto-Bismol - 0.5ml three times a day
- Pepsid (famodtidine) - 1/8 tablet in suspension maximum, once a day
She said that if all of this doesn't work we will try running a blood test. In the meanwhile, she said to continue whole prey since that seems to be helping, and that after the meds are gone that pobiotics and multivitamins would be a good idea - "wouldn't hurt." But to wait until after the meds so that we aren't changing too many things at once. Then we won't know what helped. Which makes sense. Here is what I read on his records from the day that I got a copy of: "Enteritis, possible esophositis, IBD... FEcal cytology: rods, clostridium heavy RAL - heliobacter Fecal: O+P to Antech"
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Post by Heather on Sept 22, 2010 20:58:48 GMT -5
Good luck little Koda, Momma is not trying to poison you. You get better now. Big cyberhugs for the brave little fuzzbutt. ciao
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Post by katt on Sept 22, 2010 22:56:32 GMT -5
haha Oh you would THINK he was being poisoned the way he spit all of the meds everywhere! And thatws jsut round one of round one! In an hour I have he other 4 meds to give... And this is going to last for 10 days...I have tests this week and next, naturally. I wonder if I really am supposed to wake up and give him the one med [Sucralfate (carafate)1/8 tablet mixed in a slurry every 6 hours, given a minimum of1 hour before the other meds] every 6 hours... Or if that is every 6 hours during the day? there were a lot of instructions I never think of these questions until after the fact of course! The carafate is a tummy coater, so you think I need to give it at 4 am tonight to stay on the 6 hour tract?
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Post by mustelidmusk on Sept 22, 2010 23:23:17 GMT -5
No---- If you adhere to getting up in the middle of the night, you'll be on the carafate with ulcers next! Call the office and ask the best way to deal with with the meds. when considering your typical schedule. Your vet has done exactly what I expect my vet would be doing. My vet would be doing the blood work as well. But let's hope this works and the blood work is not required. If the antibiotics (perhaps a couple of rounds with different meds.) do not work, then your vet may want to try some pred. I suspect that the meds will help. quite a bit. The question is whether or not the issue clears up enough and/or whether or not the symptoms return when the meds are stopped. Again, this will take some time to sort out! When giving Koda the meds, you may need to start wrapping him in a towel (with his arms/paws down and flat against his ribs.) You may need to scruff Koda and tuck his wrapped up burrito body under your arm (if he's scruffed with your right hand, you would tuck his body under your right arm. I've had to resort to this when my first two brats were given yucky meds unless I wanted to wear "eau de furet" . The boys developed the technique of whipping their bodies and peeing at the same time I'm really pleased that you seem to have a knowledgeable and reasonable vet that you can work with. This is so important for both you and Koda. -jennifer
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Post by Heather on Sept 22, 2010 23:44:05 GMT -5
Ahhh, the whole peeing on the med person....I actually resorted to medicating over the toilet . Bundling is a necessary precaution. It lessens the damage that can occur on his scruff when he starts to wiggle out of your grasp or lessens the chance of you dropping your furry little miscreant. ciao
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Post by katt on Sept 22, 2010 23:47:46 GMT -5
Oh my! I can just picture that! Koda wasn't too bad about it, but he kept flinging his head around (yes, while in a scruff lol) and proceeding to spit/fling medicine across my bed. Next round will be done in the bathroom! A few of the meds (2) are pills that I am supposed to crush up into a slurry (so mix with water) and give. Is there an easier way to do this? The powder doesn't seem to be super soluble so a lot of the powder got lost at the bottom of the thing I mixed it in...I was going to use hot water next time (and let it cool first before giving it to him of course) to help dissolve it better. But what about adding in some ferretvite or meat soupies to make it taste better so he doesn't fling it all around?
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Post by katt on Sept 23, 2010 0:40:06 GMT -5
Well that was fun! Round 2 consisted of the other 4 meds...one of which (Metronidazole) Koda was convinced would kill him, the other of which (peptobismol) was almost as bad. *shakes head* I felt so bad! He was flinging his head around. We lost all of the first batch of the Metronidazole and had to get a new syringe full because he spit it all out. Then he was choking and gagging and sneezing and writhing... We got smart after the first time and put some Ferretvite on the end of the syringe and snuck the meds in (kind of he definitely still gagged but the sugar addiction overcame the "poison" of the medicine : while he licked away at the ferretvite. Then, when he was about to spit it all out, we squirted a drop of ferretvite into his mouth so he had to swallow if he wanted to eat the ferretvite. For the pepsid, since he hated the first pill slurry, I mixed it with warm water and ferretvite. At first he saw the syringe and thought I was going to attempt to assassinate him again, but I scruffed him and got him to taste it and then he lapped the rest up. This is going to be a looong ten days. I just hope he doesn't hate me at the end of it! I have to say, I was surprised that he didn't like the pepto-bismol, but he did like the amoxicillin - which was no big surprise because he liked it when he had his surgery. lol BTW - a good ferret burrito is MUCH mroe difficult than you made it sound! He squiggles backwards so his head is buried in the burrito.
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Post by katt on Sept 23, 2010 0:41:07 GMT -5
Does anyone have a video of giving their ferrets meds? Like meds that they think will kill them? Not semi gross meds or yummy ones. The really difficult ones...
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Post by Lynxie on Sept 23, 2010 0:56:05 GMT -5
LOL funny that Koda likes the amoxicillin so much. There's nothing funnier than when an animal likes the taste of a medicine.
I had a rat that was on pred for the last part of her life (she had a pituitary tumor), and she would get all excited when I picked her up and she saw the syringe. It was so heartbreakingly sweet to see her stumble out of her hammock and crawl over to the cage door come medicine time.
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Post by Heather on Sept 23, 2010 1:44:32 GMT -5
I use a cat piller to give pills. I long since gave up using slurries as they do not mix well and often you don't get all of the meds. It's a long tube with a plunger. It's an awesome tool and every first aid kit needs one. I got this one from the vet. ciao
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