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Post by goingpostal on Apr 6, 2011 17:09:09 GMT -5
I went in to clean out the ferrets an hour ago and Pip was straining in the middle of the floor trying to potty, put him in the pan, more straining, nothing coming out, ran out, ran back in, strained some more, nothing. I got him into the local vet asap and got some xrays, his bladder is HUGE, he's blocked. They are going to put him under, try to drain some with a needle and try to flush the blockage out but they aren't really experienced with this issue in ferrets. I explained he's adrenal and that prostate/bladder issues are pretty common which is why I watch them like hawks and brought him in right away but I'm looking for some advice, links, info. I've never dealt with it before and our regular ferret vet is 2.5 hours away and closed for the day already anyways. The vet is going to call in an hour or so and let me know if we can bring him home if all went well or if they want to keep him overnight. Good thoughts please!
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Post by acodlin on Apr 6, 2011 17:45:06 GMT -5
All of the furry and human fingers and toes are crossed for you! I hope everything goes well for Pip..
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 6, 2011 17:57:59 GMT -5
Not good news, she can't get a catheter in although she did drain him with the needle. I called the e-vet in Duluth to make sure they can handle that and they said they can so we are doing a mass phone call back and forth, borrowing vehicles, mapquesting, getting out of work tonight, etc OMG! I am so stressed. We should be leaving with a half an hour or so but god knows when we'll make it back. So much for my newly cleared credit card.
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Post by Sherry on Apr 6, 2011 18:02:41 GMT -5
Good luck with him! OMG, poor little man We'll be keeping fingers and paws all crossed.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Apr 6, 2011 22:05:08 GMT -5
I had the same problem with an adrenal ferret and a severely enlarged prostate. It is difficult to get a catheter in but a ferret knowledgeable vet should know how. What are you doing for adrenal treatment? Melatonin, lupron, deslorelin? If he's not on adrenal meds he needs to go on them. If he's on lupron, increase the dose. Also, get the vet to prescribe finasteride and flutamide. I'd do both because it sounds like his prostate is severely enlarged. No time to waste figuring out which one will work better. Did she find crystals in his urine? If yes, did she send them to a lab? Also, what did his bladder look like on the xray? Well defined or a big foggy grey mass? Does he have a urinary infection? She may have to also prescribe a sulfa based antibiotic to treat an infection. If he didn't have an infection before I'm sure he will now. If you have noted a slowly progressing difficulty urinating, then it would most likely be that his prostate is so enlarged that he just can't push it out. But if this happened from one day to the next, I suspect that he has not been emptying his bladder properly for a while and this has caused him to develop stones. so there may be a stone lodged in there. I will keep my fingers crossed. I hope the other vet can insert the catheter.
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Post by Heather on Apr 6, 2011 22:19:43 GMT -5
Healing candle is lit and fingers crossed. It does sound like his adrenal is now affecting his prostate. I hate this disease. Good luck and please keep us posted ciao
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Post by sherik on Apr 6, 2011 22:55:29 GMT -5
I hope he is doing alright now. I am praying for your little guy. I hate this disease also.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Apr 6, 2011 23:00:40 GMT -5
It does sound like his adrenal is now affecting his prostate. I hate this disease. You and me both! I am so traumatized with Adrenal disease. After you have seen the late stages of the disease you feel like you just don't want to see that ever again. I know it will take several years but I really hope that Adrenal vaccine works. Dr. Murray told me the results so far are promising but they have had a few reactions at the vaccine site.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 7, 2011 2:07:39 GMT -5
Ok, we are home, the e vet got a cath in, urine out, flushed him out a bunch but he may just block again, they want me to bring him to my main vet tomorrow but there's no way I can get off before 1pm, both my main vet and the e vet will be calling tomorrow anyways and we will figure something out, my hope is he won't reblock right away and I can bring him in Friday, I'm off work. The local vet can go in with the needle to take out excess urine if he blocks before that, at least that's the plan.
Also he's been on monthly lupron about a year and just started showing issues again last month, the shot we just gave him a few days ago was increased dosage and I had started doing daily melatonin as well, he was supposed to get the des implant next Fri. He had been doing minor straining for awhile but I was hoping the lupron increase and switching to des would solve it, apparently he wasn't on the same schedule as me. I have him in a cage by himself with paper towels in the litter pan and my b/f will stay up to watch him most of tonight, I gotta get some sleep.
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Post by shilohismygirl on Apr 7, 2011 6:47:40 GMT -5
Omg, Fingers crossed for your little one! I hope he gets better!
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Post by miamiferret2 on Apr 7, 2011 7:05:29 GMT -5
I would try to get deslorelin. Also a melatek Melatonin implant. Oral Melatonin is not as effective. I hope she can prescribe some prostate meds for you! Best to put him on it right away.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Apr 7, 2011 7:06:41 GMT -5
Can your vet tell if he has prostatic cysts?
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 7, 2011 7:35:39 GMT -5
Well the 1st vet wasn't real sure where his prostate was on the xray, the evet didn't do anymore xrays. will those prostate meds help right away? He's still cannot go here this morning and I'm going to bring him right into the vet at 8 and have them drain him, I just need to is there actually something that can be done about him blocked? Surgery? Because we can't keep this up and doesn't it take weeks for the des to kick in anyways?
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 7, 2011 7:36:57 GMT -5
I wrote down those meds as well, I don't know if this vet will know the dosage but they can call my main one and figure it out hopefully.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Apr 7, 2011 8:21:21 GMT -5
I would start with the highest dose of finasteride that you can give to a ferret. Check with your own vet first but as i recall, you can give a ferret up to 5 mg of finasteride a day. divided 12 hrs apart (2.5 mg in the am /2.5 pm). The prostate cannot be seen on an xray. She can feel the prostate and sometimes the cysts are large enough that you can feel it. Or you can perform an ultrasound. I had the option of performing a soft tissue surgery on my ferret to remove prostate cysts. But he was so old and tired, I just didn't want to put him through any more. I sat down and thought about it. What was this surgery going to do? It was all just going to happen again because the adrenal disease was still there. If you give deslorelin, you should probably give lupron also so the des has time to kick in. I do not believe that there is any danger to the ferret if you give lupron and des together. I eventually got to the point where I could no longer help my ferret's prostate and urinary problems. I had to make the painful decision to put him down. He was suffering. Not being able to urinate is painful.
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