babbling idiot...
Janna Barenghien
Ha.. Well, next time I will have to get my husband to come with me because I
could not get out what I want to say in a cohesive manner.
Vet: What is that?? (looking at the sample of watery diarrhea I brought
with me).
Me: Poop
Vet: When did this start?
Me: Well, she had been having odd looking poops for about two weeks, but
she has been acting perfectly normal so I dismissed it as just a reaction to
my introducing new foods, but this morning she produced this (holding up the
jar of liquid and the baggy of vomit). First she attacked Weasle, b/c she
hates Weasle... both my females hate Weasle.... Oh and by the way your
papers may indicate that Boo is a male but really she's a female .. I have a
male ferret now and so now I am certain she is a female as I have the
anatomy to compare... So anyway, she attacked Weasle and I had to separate
them and in order to do this I had to set Boo and Jamie both on top of their
cage while I hunted down Weasle so I could put him in his cage... So, 1
minute later I go to get the girls off the top of their cage and I see that
Boo is scrunched down, squinting her eyes and shivering and I knew
immediately that something was terribly wrong with her... So I picked her up
and held her.. and consoling her... b/c I thought she was maybe especially
upset with being in a scrap with Weasle, but somehow I knew that wasn't it
and when I put her down she ran under the couch and pooped this watery
diarrhea but I'm not sure if it's all diarrhea or if there's some urine in
there too b/c the little girls pee right on their poop so I don't
know.........
Vet: *checked Boo's file card.....silence..........folded arms... looking
very serious*
Me: ...how much of this is poop and then about 4 minutes later she vomited
this (holding up the baggy). She wasn't feeling well at all and I decided
to call for an appointment. I went to the store after making the
appointment and got her some pedialyte but she didn't like it until I mixed
it with some cold water and some ferretone then she lapped it right up.
After about 6 or 7 dropperfuls she started acting normal again... running
around..and stuff. And as you can see now she is acting perfectly normal...
Boo: *Climbing up my shirt and onto my shoulder, showing off what a good
shoulder rider she is and her balance ability and agility...*
Me: ..... but I swear she was very sick this morning and shivering and
squinting her eyes as if she were in a lot of pain. I know my ferret. She
was in pain and this is the first time I have seen a poop this watery from
her (putting her back on the examination table) She's a small ferret and
she's always been small but I think she's lost weight or maybe it was just
the way she was scrunched over this morning... Her backbone looked like it
was protruding.. I don't know...what do you think??
Vet: *Palpating Boo's abdomen* Boo is a very petite ferret and feels like
she has a good body weight for her size. She certainly isn't emaciated and
isn't dehydrated. We are going to start her on some Clavamox, 2.5 ml twice
a day for ten days and I want you to get some Kaopectate. Give her 1/4th
teaspoonful with the antibiotic. Here's a syringe. Do you have any
questions?
Me: Umm.. no... not right now. Oh, are you going to run any tests on the
samples I brought?
Vet: No. If she were an outside ferret I would run tests.
Me: Oh.. okay. Well, I guess this is all then?
Vet: She should recover just fine, but call me if you don't see improvement
in a couple of days.
End of appointment.
:
Melissa
I think your vet's actions might be ok, but I'm not crazy about a couple
of things he said.
If Boo has been there before he should have a previous weight on her and
should have compared it to her current weight. Not sure if that was done.
Is this vet a ferret expert? Just wondering. The "she doesn't go outside
so I don't have to test the fecals" (I'm paraphrasing) sounds a lot like
a non-ferret vet.
-Melissa
In article <CkaV6.567$r93.1...@dfiatx1-snr1.gtei.net>, "Janna
Janna Barenghien
experience with ferrets and apparently takes care of most of the ferrets in
this area, but the real experts are in Clearwater.. which is about an hour +
drive away. I got that tip from another friend of mine who has 9 ferrets.
Up until now all my ferrets have needed are their annual shots and he did
take their weight when they were kits.. and then again when he saw them the
next time, but after that he hasn't.
He mentioned something about being concerned with parasites and protozoa
(flagellates??) infections if she were an outside ferret.. I can understand
this. She doesn't drink rainwater (only filtered water for my fuzzies) or
romp in stagnant puddles outside. She's not exposed to anything foreign
really so I imagine he thinks her own natural flora has become out of
balance.
Since Saturday morning when I took her to the vet's her poops have become
more solid. I still am not happy with the color of them though, but it may
be the kaopectate discoloring them. I am keeping a very close watch on
things here. If I'm not happier soon... I just may drive to Clearwater. We
will see.
"Melissa" <nos...@nospam.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:N_eV6.77293$4f7.6...@bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...