Post by vee426 on Sept 3, 2023 19:32:53 GMT -5
Hello everyone, I'm hoping to gain some new insight or possibly if any of you have dealt with anything similar before, some advice.
I have a 3.5 year old ferret who is have some GI issues. Here's the back story.
Around February this year he had diarrhea, brought him to the vet and they put him on antibiotics. They worked and I thought that was the end of it, although he has always tested positive for ECE and helicobacter the last two years.
In May we got our 4th ferret, after a two week quarantine we introduced her to the other 3. Within a week my 3.5 year old started having constant pure water stool. Back to the vet and this time got a 4 week round of combo antibiotics.
For the first two weeks they worked, then after that he started just having diarrhea again even while continuing the antibiotics. So at this point I brought him to an exotics specialist who did a bunch of tests.
Blood work:
high lipase at 1254
Low total protein at 4.9
Slightly high hematocrit and hemoglobin
High eosinophils % but not high total eosinophils
Ultra sound:
Revealed multiple swollen lymph nodes in the abdomen with the largest being 1.1cm and lots of liquid fecal matter
Fine needle aspirate of the lymph node:
"MICROSCOPIC DESCRIPTION
A needle aspirate from an intra-abdominal lymph node is examined. The specimen
is highly cellular containing a heterogeneous population of large and small
lymphocytes. Low numbers of large atypical histiocytic cells are also seen.
Some of these have very large nuclei. Atypical mitotic figures are seen in some
of these larger histiocytic cells. There are also tissue mast cells present.
There are numerous background red blood cells.
No infectious organisms are seen"
Body: he is very skinny and I can feel almost all his organs and spine, I can feel the lymph node pretty easily along with kidney and spleen. (850g holding steady/up and down about 20g depending on time I weigh him)
She sent us home with tylan powder and vitamin B "pet tinic" I gave him this and he ended up having normal stool for 3 days then on the 3rd or 4th day he would have mushy diarrhea(not pure liquid like before) and it went on like that as a pattern almost to the dot every 3/4 days he would have mushy stool for like 4 bowel movements then back to normal. I kept a log and could pretty much tell which day I would wake up to loose stool. Went on like this for a month and back to the exotics specialist.
She said she feels like his lymph node grew but unsure. She said we can try prednisolone which I agreed to do. A dose of 0.5mg/kg twice a day. Been giving it to him for almost 3 weeks now and almost the same exact pattern except on the 3rd/4th day instead of mushy stool it's now seedy stool.
He is 3.5 years old and his energy level is much less than the others, he gets up and explores, stashes his toys, checks on them all but he's only up for about 20 minutes at a time (except in the morning sometimes he's up for an hour) they're all cage free and I'd say he's Awake about 2.5 hours a day sometimes only 2. Not sure if that's normal for a ferret of this age or if it's because of the issues. He also don't play/wardance much maybe once a week if that the rest of the time he jusy explores/stashes.
He is eating fine, drinking fine and has been through this whole process. He eats totally ferret. I had him on instinct UP but eliminated it from his diet to see, along with marshalls, he actually decided to pick out the totally ferret from the marshalls food anyway so he's pretty much only eating totally ferret.
The high lipase makes me think this could be IBD but the vet keeps telling me she doesn't think it is and the only way to get an official diagnosis is surgery biopsy to remove the lymph node.
Has anyone ever dealt with anything like this? I know it's a lot and thank you for your time. Also is his activity level and not playing much normal for his age? Should I be concerned about that? I'm checking on him every hour and it's driving me absolutely crazy. Bad anxiety and causing me to have anticipatory grief I feel like I can't even live my life without checking on him to make sure he's okay because I feel like I need to be there in case something happens.
Again thank in advance for any advice/insight things to try.
P.s I also tried slippery elm, which actually made his stool very good(granted only a two day sample size) in combination with the prednisolone but the vet told me they don't recommend slippery elm with pred.
I have a 3.5 year old ferret who is have some GI issues. Here's the back story.
Around February this year he had diarrhea, brought him to the vet and they put him on antibiotics. They worked and I thought that was the end of it, although he has always tested positive for ECE and helicobacter the last two years.
In May we got our 4th ferret, after a two week quarantine we introduced her to the other 3. Within a week my 3.5 year old started having constant pure water stool. Back to the vet and this time got a 4 week round of combo antibiotics.
For the first two weeks they worked, then after that he started just having diarrhea again even while continuing the antibiotics. So at this point I brought him to an exotics specialist who did a bunch of tests.
Blood work:
high lipase at 1254
Low total protein at 4.9
Slightly high hematocrit and hemoglobin
High eosinophils % but not high total eosinophils
Ultra sound:
Revealed multiple swollen lymph nodes in the abdomen with the largest being 1.1cm and lots of liquid fecal matter
Fine needle aspirate of the lymph node:
"MICROSCOPIC DESCRIPTION
A needle aspirate from an intra-abdominal lymph node is examined. The specimen
is highly cellular containing a heterogeneous population of large and small
lymphocytes. Low numbers of large atypical histiocytic cells are also seen.
Some of these have very large nuclei. Atypical mitotic figures are seen in some
of these larger histiocytic cells. There are also tissue mast cells present.
There are numerous background red blood cells.
No infectious organisms are seen"
Body: he is very skinny and I can feel almost all his organs and spine, I can feel the lymph node pretty easily along with kidney and spleen. (850g holding steady/up and down about 20g depending on time I weigh him)
She sent us home with tylan powder and vitamin B "pet tinic" I gave him this and he ended up having normal stool for 3 days then on the 3rd or 4th day he would have mushy diarrhea(not pure liquid like before) and it went on like that as a pattern almost to the dot every 3/4 days he would have mushy stool for like 4 bowel movements then back to normal. I kept a log and could pretty much tell which day I would wake up to loose stool. Went on like this for a month and back to the exotics specialist.
She said she feels like his lymph node grew but unsure. She said we can try prednisolone which I agreed to do. A dose of 0.5mg/kg twice a day. Been giving it to him for almost 3 weeks now and almost the same exact pattern except on the 3rd/4th day instead of mushy stool it's now seedy stool.
He is 3.5 years old and his energy level is much less than the others, he gets up and explores, stashes his toys, checks on them all but he's only up for about 20 minutes at a time (except in the morning sometimes he's up for an hour) they're all cage free and I'd say he's Awake about 2.5 hours a day sometimes only 2. Not sure if that's normal for a ferret of this age or if it's because of the issues. He also don't play/wardance much maybe once a week if that the rest of the time he jusy explores/stashes.
He is eating fine, drinking fine and has been through this whole process. He eats totally ferret. I had him on instinct UP but eliminated it from his diet to see, along with marshalls, he actually decided to pick out the totally ferret from the marshalls food anyway so he's pretty much only eating totally ferret.
The high lipase makes me think this could be IBD but the vet keeps telling me she doesn't think it is and the only way to get an official diagnosis is surgery biopsy to remove the lymph node.
Has anyone ever dealt with anything like this? I know it's a lot and thank you for your time. Also is his activity level and not playing much normal for his age? Should I be concerned about that? I'm checking on him every hour and it's driving me absolutely crazy. Bad anxiety and causing me to have anticipatory grief I feel like I can't even live my life without checking on him to make sure he's okay because I feel like I need to be there in case something happens.
Again thank in advance for any advice/insight things to try.
P.s I also tried slippery elm, which actually made his stool very good(granted only a two day sample size) in combination with the prednisolone but the vet told me they don't recommend slippery elm with pred.
