|
Post by Heather on Mar 23, 2011 1:10:44 GMT -5
I'm so glad that she's doing so much better. ciao
|
|
|
Post by xeopse on Mar 23, 2011 8:52:15 GMT -5
I checked on her this morning before work, we have a routine first thing in the morning. I make her food (and mix in her timmy's now) and feed that to her so I can draw up her meds. By the time I get back usually sheh as eaten quite a bit, probably about 6 or 7 tablespoonfulls then I give her the amoxi, the prednisolone, and the essiac tea via syringes, then I give her more food so she can get the taste out of her mouth because they're all apparently very yucky. She fights me now for the meds, which is good because last week she was so weak she just let me give her all this nasty stuff without a fuss - now she's trying to scratch at me and puts her teeth on me (but never ever bites - she is such a d*mn good girl I can't stand it sometimes) and moving her head away or trying to bakc up into her blankets. She goes to the bathroom usually by then, so I check that, clean up, and then lay out more papertowels for her to use as a potty spot. Pretty soon I will be laying out water for her to see if she drinks it on her own, if not I will just continue mixng a lot of water into her food. She LOVES the EVO duck canned food. I realized though that I probably shouldn't keep giving her alternate foods that are cooked and uncooked though, huh? She eats the bison, but she isn't as crazy about it like she is the duck for some reason. Does it make a difference if I mixed it together? She still doesn't eat that much while I'm not there - she eats liek a starved piglet if I mix water and heat it up though. Last night she started to eat during the night even when I wasn't there though, I could tell some was gone - an improvement I hope? I weighed her last night, if anything she has lost a little weight but she looks significantly better somehow. Her hips and ribs are not showing anymore and she almost looks like a normal ferret. Her belly is not as large either, she just looks like she has a small potbelly now. I'm going to take her for a very short walk later out into our hallway to see if I can get her moving. She has a lot of muscle waste from being so sick so I'll see how she does. She will walk into the kitchen to watch me make her food but htat's about it, once it gets nice out again I'll take her outside and let her play in teh leaves again though
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Mar 23, 2011 9:48:33 GMT -5
Nothing wrong with mixing the raw in with the canned food. The problem is mixing it with dry. She does appear to be improving somewhat, or at the very least, she seems to be feeling better! That's great
|
|
|
Post by miamiferret2 on Mar 23, 2011 9:54:28 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by miamiferret2 on Mar 23, 2011 10:00:46 GMT -5
sometimes the pred causes muscle atrophy. it is important to get her to exercise. don't laugh. but i developed a system of "physical therapy" with my sick ferrets. LOL. what i do is, i hold them with my right hand, so that they are standing up. and then i put their feet on my left hand and i will push their legs up towards their butt. this makes them resist and push down onto your hand. i push up, they push down, etc. so then they do "push" ups with their hind legs. the "physical therapy" is harder with the front legs but you can develop ways to help them work those muscles out too. i know this all sounds ridiculous. but i'm a little ridiculous....i swear it does work though.
|
|
|
Post by shilohismygirl on Mar 23, 2011 13:10:29 GMT -5
Oh, xeopse, I am so sorry that your baby girl is sick. I am praying for you all, and she seems as though she's getting better a little bit! That's great. She is a good girl, too young for such a sickness-but at least she is strong and has that will to live! What a sweet girl!
|
|
|
Post by Heather on Mar 23, 2011 13:22:51 GMT -5
Exercise is indeed difficult with the sickies...but one thing Mayhem loved was a warm bath. Now Mayhem had cardiomalyopathy and this caused huge weight gains in the rear (heavy fluid gain even with his diuretics). He had also suffered stroke (spinal thrombosis) causing partial paralysis to his back legs (this often occurs with this disease). He could do a swimming type motion but he couldn't get his legs under him. I used to draw a warm bath (this is as warm as you and I would have it, remember a ferret's body temp is 102, they like their bath water almost hot). I would put enough water in the tub that it would support him and he would then actually walk around. He would play in water, swim and even just float around (you have to be there just like a baby) and snorkel until the water got cool and he would want out. Even him drying himself was exercise. This also helped get any crud and stuff out of his fur because his condition meant he messed himself frequently and had to be bathed. ciao
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2011 14:05:49 GMT -5
Aw, it sounds like your baby is doing awesome! You're such a good ferret mommy!
I would feed her whatever she enjoys - if it helps keep weight on her, it should be okay.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2011 17:15:49 GMT -5
if she likes the duck, I'd let her have it... Heather's advice of a warm bath is great if she likes water...if the surface of the tub is too slick lay a towel on the floor of the tub after it's full for some traction
|
|
|
Post by xeopse on Mar 23, 2011 21:15:16 GMT -5
I took Lulabelle (we have been calling her Doodoobelle because she is pooping so much on the papertowels I put in her potty corners of the bathrooms - that's the first thing you see when you walk into the bathroom hahaha) for a short walk today. I left the door open halfway and was talking to Kevin in front of it. He looked down and said "Hello, baby Doodoobelle" and I motioned for her to come to me and she CAME RIGHT TO ME. No hesistation whatsoever. I opened the front door to the loft and she walked into the carpet of the hallway. She wasn't interested at first, just scratching herself a lot but when I walked back towards her to see if she wanted to go back into the loft she decided to go into the other direction. She went probably 20 or 30 feet in one direction then followed me back down the hall and into the loft. I opened the door to the bathroom and she went in. I have gotten in the habit of tleaving the door open because she has been too sick to get up and walk out of it, but I turned around while I was in the living room and there she was, climbing down the 2 steps to get down to the room with me! She walked all around the studio, played in a cardboard box, wandered around everywhere then eventually about half an hour later went back to the bathroom and made herself a nice bed in her blanket. So needless to say I'm friggen THRILLED. She is just like her usual Lulabelle self, albeit a little less active. Normally she can go up 3 or 4 flights of stairs, down a 100 foot hallway, the nback down all those flights of stairs and down another long hallway to the loft. She was atrophied when I first adopted her - the lab did NOTHING for an exercise program, but the other four played more so they were able to build up muscle on their own terms... Lulabelle always needed help with that because she doesn't play or wrestle or even really climb. She is constantly getting better My little baby And I will try the warm bath - maybe I just do not have it warm enough for them. None of them ever really seem to care for the bath and just beg to be let out. THey cry and cry to be put into the tub, but as soon as they're in they want to get out (just like my old cat!) but maybe I should try making it warmer. A couple of them will try to swim, but Lulabelle never has. Maybe if I hold her up I can get her to paddle though. Question of course is... now that I'm getting her better, I wonder how long I can keep her going like this? =/ I try not to think about that part.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2011 22:07:46 GMT -5
That's great news! I've been rooting for your baby every day, and I'm so happy to hear about her improvements! What an absolute angel
|
|
|
Post by Heather on Mar 23, 2011 22:11:34 GMT -5
You are doing so fantastic and so is Lullabelle. She is such a spunky fighter. You live day to day with these little ones. Each day a gift. Give her a big hug, she's such a brave little thing. ciao
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Mar 23, 2011 23:02:04 GMT -5
I can't blame you for being thrilled. And Heather is right- you simply don't think about the "future" with a little one like this. Take her for what she is- a little furry blessing. As is each good day you have with her
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2011 12:59:12 GMT -5
Sounds like she is doing great. Enjoy every moment! She's just happy to be with you right now.
|
|
|
Post by xeopse on Mar 24, 2011 13:41:19 GMT -5
I walked into the bathroom this morning to get ready for school and she ate almost ALL of her 2 medallions (bison) overnight! Talk about a pig! She was also ready to go, I didn't have to wake her up to eat or give her medications. I'm going to call the vet this morning and see what I should do aobut her dose - I assume I should stay on teh same dose but I need to pick up more predisolone and in about a week I will need a refill on teh amoxi. I don't know if it's jsut the pred making her feel better or if it's one of these or all of these extra things I'm adding in but she's improving so drastically I am just going to keep doing what I'm doing. What I didn't ask if htere are any long-term effects from using them? Can I keep her on this for weeks at a time? I don't know how much time I have left with her so its a bit hard to tell what lasting implications would be. For right now I'm not worrying aobut it - there are no negative side effects that i'm seeing at the moment. She loves the Timmy's, too. I decided she's going to always have to live on her own, this would be the easiest to see her food intake/output (haha) and her general condition. Not sure if I should have her in a seperate cage entirely, a smaller one so she would be forced to use the litter box (like I said before, s he only uses it if she is living with her sisters, when she's b y herself she goes outside the LB) or I should keep her in the bathroom. I debated on having her as a house ferret but there's too many places for her to potty without me seeing it and making sure it's good form/normal looking. Plus, I always worry Leia might roll over onto her if htey sleep together (Lulabelle crawls into leia's dog bed, they love each other but if she rolls over... she is just too heavy for such a fragile ferret) so I don't know what I'll do for a longer-term house for her. In the meantime she gets the bathroom I guess. I'd just like t o not have to step over the Helix and random blankets and tubes in the middle of the night or early morning LOL So I think we are going to be alright My little baby pulled through the worst of it. She's doing so good, I'm so glad I didn't make a rushed decision last week... I would have regretted it so much. I knew it wasn't her time yet.
|
|