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Post by jinxed-it on Oct 18, 2020 20:40:57 GMT -5
hey, guys. sorry to keep posting here. it really does seem like it’s one thing after another with these guys, and there’s nowhere else i know of to get advice.
so, what this boils down to - i think my young ferret, the one who likes to eat all things fluffy/scare me with potential blockages and suckle on her brothers ears most likely inhaled some duk soup yesterday. immediately after that, she completely submerged her face in her water bowl. that is something she has NEVER done before, and i have no idea why she did it then.
since then, she’s been coughing and sneezing. sounds a little snuffly/wheezy overall. her energy is good and she is eating/drinking.
i am pretty worried about aspiration pneumonia, especially with some of the things i’ve read on google about how they can just suddenly die without many symptoms showing.
she was just taken to an exotic vet yesterday (a few hours before the duk soup and the water bowl incident) and was given a clean bill of health. how long should i wait or what should i be on the lookout for before taking her in for antibiotics and/or other treatment?
what do vets typically do for aspiration pneumonia? is it a guarantee that if she did actually inhale either duk soup or water that she will for sure have aspiration pneumonia? is there any chance of this resolving on its own?
again, i am sorry for all the posts. i just genuinely worry so much for these little guys.
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Post by unclejoe on Oct 19, 2020 7:19:55 GMT -5
from what I've read, she would have to inhale a relatively large amount. It's not 100% certain it would cause pneumonia. It could resolve on it's own once all the foreign material is expelled and the irritation subsists. give it a couple days.
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Post by jinxed-it on Oct 22, 2020 10:11:03 GMT -5
the coughing and sneezing have died down a lot - now it’s only maybe slightly more than i’d expect just from a normal ferret snuffling up dust and hair. but she does seem to be breathing faster/shallower than my other ferret. i can’t see any signs of her being cyanotic or anything, and she doesn’t look like she’s in any kind of distress. i’m just not sure what dyspnea looks like in ferrets.
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Post by unclejoe on Oct 22, 2020 12:55:30 GMT -5
We once had a bout of flu go thru our business (8 at the time) and we did see rapid breathing and congestion which was treated with antibiotics. As it took almost 3 weeks to go thru all ferrets, there was a lot of dosing going on for a quite a while, since each ferret was on abx for 10 days and the doses overlapped.
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Post by jinxed-it on Oct 22, 2020 13:36:42 GMT -5
i don’t even know if what i am seeing would warrant antibiotics. her appetite is still good (voracious might be a better word), she’s drinking, she’s playing hard still. should i give her more time to see if she can get over it on her own, or schedule an appointment with the vet? i feel like i am in there with them at least once a week. lol
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Post by unclejoe on Oct 22, 2020 19:52:39 GMT -5
She's not in distress of any kind. I would say that as long as she's active, eating and going potty ok then just monitor her. They can get coughs and flu, as I said, but when we had our little epidemic it affected appetite, energy and potty because they weren't eating as much.
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Post by jinxed-it on Oct 22, 2020 21:59:18 GMT -5
well, as is usual with her, her stools are weird. they got small again, so i thought maybe she'd gotten into something else she shouldn't have. i gave her a little pumpkin, and it didn't seem to do much. at least not in the capacity as last time. then today i hadn't seen her "go" at all, so i gave her just a little bit of ferret lax. that produced a pretty good size, but very birdseed-like, stool with some mucous. she hasn't been since then that i know of, so i'm getting a little worried about that. but she just ate a ton and her belly isn't hard at all, so i'm wondering if she's just went somewhere during playtime that i haven't found yet - a fun surprise for later, no doubt.  i am going to have my fiancé keep an eye on her tonight. |
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Post by unclejoe on Oct 25, 2020 19:13:15 GMT -5
How is she doing??
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Post by jinxed-it on Nov 18, 2020 20:20:38 GMT -5
i am so sorry i'm just now responding to this. life got a little (maybe a lot) crazy. she recovered completely without vet intervention being necessary. in fact, she recently got a clean bill of health at her last check up a couple of weeks ago (along with a 10% increase in body weight).
the last few days, however, she has had some pretty wicked diarrhea. we all know how smelly ferret poop is normally, but there were a couple of times when it was absolutely putrid. she doesn't seem to be dehydrated at all - is still gobbling down food and playing hard. it's just her BMs are never consistent and have never been "normal". i gave her just a little bit of canned pumpkin to see if that would help, but i'm still waiting to see results from that.
any advice you guys have on how to deal with diarrhea in ferrets would be greatly appreciated!
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Nov 19, 2020 6:40:30 GMT -5
What is her food? kibble or raw? Since mine is raw---I get rid of chicken first and see if that helps. I add mice to the diet and the fur helps so much. I buy from Big Cheese Factory now as I found a better deal than Perfect Prey. If kibble, is it a fish based product? My Abbey had Ibs---she did not do well on some kibble and when I changed her to raw, she did not do well on chicken. Ferret lax has molasses in it---I should call Marshalls and see what the carb count is ---it would be interesting to know. As you want to try and keep your ferrets from getting insulinoma by reducing the carbs in things they ingest. While some do get insulinoma from eating a no carb diet---it seems it is less frequent. So far none of my raw fed ferrets have gotten insulinoma(knock on wood). Here is info on ferret lax holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/22204/natural-healthy-laxativeAlso holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/20769/ferret-lax-6-mo |
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Post by jinxed-it on Nov 19, 2020 8:27:44 GMT -5
she is kibble fed a mixture of zupreem and young again zero. it did seem like the diarrhea got worse after the addition of YAZ to her kibble, but she has always had intermittently "bad" BMs.
i have only given her ferret lax once (as she is only 4.5 months old), and even then it was only a little bit because i was afraid to use vaseline at that time.
overnight and this morning, after the pumpkin, her poop is solid but stringy. she isn't acting lethargic and is still eating/drinking, and i've been over her cage and play room several times and can't find anything she might've digested that could've led to a blockage. but this cycle seems to happen with her fairly often. could it be IBS/IBD? how does a vet diagnose that? what are other symptoms i need to look out for?
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Nov 21, 2020 7:54:45 GMT -5
but this cycle seems to happen with her fairly often. could it be IBS/IBD? how does a vet diagnose that? what are other symptoms i need to look out for?
When feeding raw the forum recommends doing elimination diets----removing one protein from diet for 7 days for the suspecting culprit protein. If that doesn't work then try another. Usually with raw it is chicken. However, some ferrets have trouble with proteins that have hooves. If you suspect a kibble, I do not see why you could not do this with suspecting brand. Then try another brand.
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