Strider Sick Again...

[meiyermonster321]

Ok so last week I took Strider into the vet because he had diarrhea. The vet checked out everything and said he only had an intestinal infection, which she gave me meds for. I just finished the week long regime on Wednesday and his poop was back to normal and he was acting fine.
However, yesterday when I got home from work and let the ferrets run around Strider was stumbling; he couldn't take a few steps without falling over to his right side. He still ate and drank and wanted to run around but he kept falling over and was at one point spinning around. I put him back in their house and put food and water on the same level, though he kept trying to get around the cage as usual.
Then late last night I was woken up by him making a really weird noise, I went over to check on him and he was pawing at his mouth and foaming. I thought something was stuck so I opened his mouth but nothing was inside. He continued doing this for around 10 minutes or so and then went to sleep. Now this morning he had mucus-like diarrhea but now can walk fine and hasn't foamed again.
My vet isn't open on the weekends so I haven't been able to take him in again, but I am planning on going tomorrow before my classes start. Does anyone have any idea what could be going on with him? He had been fine since he got his spleen removed over the summer and if it was a tumor or something wouldn't the vet have felt it when she examined him last week? She said his ears, heart, lungs and eyes were all fine and he weighs 2 pounds 1 ounce so I don't know what could have happened to him in the course of a week to make him be like this.

[Barbara]

Could he be obstructed? You can try giving him some vasoline or plain pumpkin other than that I can't help. When they paw at their mouth it sometimes means they are nauseated. My thoughts and prayers are with you. I think I would be waiting at the vets office in the morning when they open.

[Dingo]

Pawing at the mouth can mean an obstruction (which you've already checked for) or it can mean insulinoma, a not uncommon problem in ferrets. Your little guy needs to see the vet asap! Keep us posted on how you go.

[meiyermonster321]

I took him to the vet today and I don't know if it even helped. She examined him again, everything was fine except for he lost some weight and his intestines in which he was tender. She felt something there and so we did an x-ray. The x-ray did not have any obvious tumors or any blockage, but there were two unknown masses: one above his intestines in the back where she said nothing should be, and one that was either near the stomach or pancreas. The intestinal walls were also very inflamed and she said his heart was a little misshapen but that it shouldn't be affecting him. She thinks the mass near his stomach could possibly be a hairball and she said it was too big to move into the intestines, but she wasn't sure on what it was exactly.
She told me to give him hairball medicine and to mix in oatmeal with his food so that he has more fiber to help him digest his food longer. She also told me to get Karo syrup and to rub it on his gums if he ever can't walk again. She said that if his intestines were inflamed because they were cancerous then there was nothing we could do, and if the mass near the stomach was on the pancreas then we couldn't do surgery to remove it, I'm assuming because it was too big.
I don't really know how to feel about this; she is the only vet in town that works on ferrets (that I know of) but she didn't mention insulinoma or anything like that and I don't feel satisfied with oatmeal and laxative for a treatment. He is still eating, drinking, and wanting to come out and play and he only seemed uncomfortable when she touched his intestinal area, but he did start vomiting or diarrhea (I never saw him do it so I don't know which it was, but it smelled terrible (and not like poop smell) and was tannish) last night and I don't want it to continue. But if those two masses are tumors and he has cancer in his intestines then is there anything I could do to help? From what she told me there didn't really seem like any other options and she didn't even mention doing surgery to find anything out. I just don't know what to think now

[Barbara]

If he were mine I would give him plain pumpkin (buy at the grocery store by the pumpkin pie filling and give him 1 cc three times a day for two days. On Vets on Animal Planet the vet used that to get rid of an erasure a ferret had chewed and it worked. I give mine pumpkin at least once a week but only about 1cc per ferret, in their soup. This works the same as oatmeal and laxative without any sugar, ferretlax has large amounts of sugar. You can also use plain vasoline, not the scented type. As for the karo, if he has low sugar issues (from a tumor on the pancreas) this will get him out of a crash! I'm hoping it's not a cancer and something easily fixed. My thoughts and prayers are still with oy both.

[ordinarygirl]

I'm so sorry you're doing all you can to help Strider and it seems your vet isn't giving you the answers you need.

When the vet told you to have Karo Syrup and rub it on his gums if he's falling over that's because he'd be falling over due to insulomia and that can be so easily tested - they just draw some blood (which actually isn't always all that easy depending on the ferret - they have to sedate Gabby if she needs blood drawn) but they test the blood right then and there and if they've been fasting it's better (but don't let them fast longer than four hours) and if the Blood Glucose level is 60 or below it's insulomia. It's very easily treated with prednisone and that prescription is cheap.

It sounds to me - with all due respect - that this vet is familiar with healthy ferrets but not so much when they're sick. Have you tried a google search for other vets in your area? I was totally happy with my vet and then we moved an hour away so I found a closer vet that I wanted to try - I was willing to drive the hour if need be but if I could find someone closer it would only help them if I had an emergency and the new vet is AMAZING and even better than our previous vet so sometimes it's worth it to get out of our comfort zones.

FYI vomiting is also a sign of insulomia.

If he were my ferret I would give him vaseline (the size of a pea) twice a day every day till he passed something and I'd bring him either to a new vet or back to this one to have his blood glucose checked. I'd also give him the pumpkin Barbara suggested (but not both the pumpkin and the vaseline)

If you're able to find a new vet - call the vet you went to and have them send Strider's records including films over to the new vet so you don't have to pay for x-ray's again.

Hoping everything works out for you guys - keep us posted!

[meiyermonster321]

Ok I found another vet in my city that a friend referred me to and so he has an appointment for Thursday (the vet who has the most experience with ferrets only had an opening then). He has been doing ok since the last visit, I have been giving him the pumpkin and some of the leftover intestinal infection medicine (amoxydrops) and his poop is firming up a bit, but he basically sleeps all day and when let out to play he goes and hides and sleeps more. He is still eating and drinking on his own so I think he will be ok until I see the other vet. Thank you all for your advice, I'll let you know what the new vet says or if anything changes.

[ordinarygirl]

Sleepiness like that is also a sign of insulomia.....I used to think Maya's sleepiness was endearing....turns out she was sick for a very long time before being diagnosed.

Do you give your ferrets soup? I would highly recommend it

Good luck!

[unclejoe]

Get Strider's blood glucose checked. At least it will give you one answer and the test doesn't cost a fortune. Mass near pancreas could mean insulinoma. Did new vet check blood glucose? Giving Karo is a quick fix for a glucose crash.
Eddie was pawing at his mouth when he had some bad teeth. Stumbling could also be an ear infection, but I would think the antibiotics would have nixed that, unless it's a bacteria resistant to that particular med.
So, get teeth, ears and glucose checked. Best wishes.

[meiyermonster321]

I took him to the new vet on Thursday and with mixed results. She had looked over his records and when she physically checked him out he still hurt in his intestinal area but was otherwise fine on every other outside level. We did a blood glucose test on him and it came out at at 87 which she said was normal (he was fasting for about 5 hours before I brought him in). She then told me the only real way we could find out what was the matter with him on the inside was to do surgery on him, but that it would be costly and would not ultimately cure him, especially if it was intestinal cancer which she thinks it might be
Now we are focusing on trying to stop/minimize his diarrhea so she gave me Flagyl (which he hates!) and told me to keep giving him the amoxydrops I had until I run out, and she also gave me some probiotics called FortiFlora to help keep good bacteria inside his tract. A nice thing about this vet is that they don't charge for re-check appointments so she told me to make one if he continues to have diarrhea after the meds are done.
I guess at this point I don't have any other goal than to at least keep him as happy as can be and not in any pain. He is still bright and eating/drinking, still acting lazy and missing the litterbox but at least his poop is much better now after 4 days of meds. He doesn't seem to be any discomfort and still begs for food like crazy, so that at least makes me feel a little bit better.
I really didn't expect all this kind of stuff to happen so fast, I haven't even had the two of them for a year yet I guess it all comes with owning pets, but still it sucks having this all happen. Thank you for all your help guys, I will let you know if anything changes with him.

[judy]

I'm glad the vet is watching him closely. I wonder if an ultra sound would show anything. However, they can be expenisive - years ago I spent $200 just for my vet's traveling tech to come in and do it. It did save her a surgery but if it hadn't, I would have had to pay for both.

I had a ferret once with a mass in front of her heart, and my vet put her on pred to try to shrink it and give her some more quality time. Unfortunately it was too little to late and she just didn't have time for it to work. Maybe your vet could try that for a few weeks and see what happens without surgery (unless things change drastically).

I've been a member of this forum for a long time and have read a lot of other owners' posts, and it seems that very sick ferrets just don't do well with surgeries. I formed my own opinions from those posts and decided I would never do surgery for insulinoma or any cancer.... unless the ferret were very young and the illness had been discovered very early. But I also said I would never spend $1000 to make a ferret better - until I had a sick ferret. And then guess what I did. So you have the hard job of trying to combine your heart and your head and do what you think is best for all. I don't envy you and you're right, it sucks.

*Hugs* - keep us posted.

[Barbara]

I have used the Fortiflora in the past and I think it's good. My Bandit had several bouts with IBD and had to take a lot of antiobiotics and I think they kept him from having diarrhea from the meds. BTW he developed ECE at about age one then got heliobactor. Every year after those were treated he would have flare ups of IBD and have to go on meds so we used the Fortiflora a lot.

[meiyermonster321]

I finished giving him his medicine about a week ago and the diarrhea came straight back. I had made a re-check appointment but they couldn't get me in until March 7th, but he had started to lose a lot of weight (I had to force-feed him and he would either vomit it up and/or have diarrhea) and not want to come out. So I walked into the vet today because he wasn't getting up and his diarrhea had turned blackish, and his gums were very pale. Again my options were surgery, life-long meds that would keep him alive a little longer, or euthanasia.
I decided to have him put to sleep so that he didn't have to suffer anymore I sat there with him in the vets office for a long time and just held him; I think he knew what was coming because he just sat still and snuggled up to me (which he had never done before). They took him in the back and did the procedure (they told me that they normally didn't let owners see this because they have to put the ferret under and then inject the needle straight to his heart, and I couldn't see that) and then they let me out the back and told me I could pay later. I asked if it was possible to donate his body to science or to my university so that young vets could get experience with ferrets and they are calling around and will let me know. I live in an apartment so I had no where to bury him and I don't have enough money to cremate him. An autopsy would also be $140 and I would rather save that for other vet trips.
I feel absolutely terrible I let him and Isis say goodbye to each other and now I'm worried how she will take it being the only ferret. I might find her a new friend but right now I think it's too soon. I don't even know what to do, should I wash everything and clean the entire cage or should I let his smell remain for Isis?
I really appreciate everyone who has helped me out with Strider. I know it was better for me to not let him suffer, but I still feel so bad for everything

[Barbara]

I'm so sorry. Sometimes it's better to let them go even though it hurts us so much. I'll be the Bridge was a very busy place when he arrived.

As for getting a friend. When my Bear went to the Bridge our Bob started being a really bad biter again and of course I was crying all day. Late in the afternoon my husband told me he had somewhere we needed to go. He pulled up to a pet store that he had called that had a male ferret. I told everyone I just didn't know....but I held him and he started licking my face. I think it was the salt from all my tears but whatever...........I brought him home. Bob started being her lovable self right away and Bandit was my soul mate. He went to the Bridge last August and was almost 10 years old! So I can't ever say it's too soon.... {{{{Hugs}}}}

[judy]

I am SO so sorry for your loss Sometimes it just happens that way and you have no choice but to stop their suffering. You did what your heart told you to do and that's never wrong.

As far as getting a friend for the surviving ferret.... some ferrets do well alone and some just need that buddy. Tamma was such a social ferret and when we brought Dakota home she nearly wiggled out of her skin, and it was love at first sight. But after Dakota left us, Tamma was alone for a couple of months and we brought Adrian home... Tamma was like "oh, hey... good to meetcha" and they were like two ships in the night. They played and slept together occasionally - but it was almost like high school, where Adrian was the prom queen and Tamma was the volleyball captain, and they liked each other okay, but would never be besties So I would just wait a few days and see how Isis reacts... and just give her some extra attention when you can. As far as cleaning the cage - I would do it more for hygiene purposes as Strider was so sick. But otherwise I would just continue with normal weekly cleaning and let his smell dissipate gradually and naturally.

RIP Strider
Hugs to you and Isis.