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 Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice
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Mallory

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Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Saturday, April 25, 2015 9:08 PM
We had an emergency starting late last night with one of our ferret girls, Mocha. I'll give as much information as I can, I am just looking for advice and ideas for when we go to our veterinarian on Monday. Unfortunately the only emergency vet in our small town does not see exotics - and we have had serious problems with them in the past - and our normal veterinarian is closed until Monday. The closest vet that sees exotics is 5-6 hours away and such a trip is just impossible for us. Had the veterinarian been open, we would have rushed Mocha in as soon as she started declining, unfortunately we have no other option than to nurse her from home until Monday. While our vet does her best and she is wonderful with exotics, I want to pull from the experience of forum members as well so I know exactly what questions and concerns to have on Monday. Please let me know what you think. I'm not expecting a diagnosis from the forum, just ideas to help my vet and I explore the possibilities. Of course I am doing an unhealthy amount of research independently as well and I am sure she will do the same when we see her. This is exactly what happened. Our Mocha is about 5 months old, a spayed female Marshall's ferret, fed a mix of highly recommended grain free cat and ferret foods. She has not had her distemper vaccine yet - we were planning to order the recommended puppy vaccine and then once that course is over taking her in to the vet for her rabies vaccine and heartworm preventative. The room she free ranges in is rigidly ferret-proofed, so poisoning seems highly unlikely and an intestinal blockage seems unlikely, although possible. She free ranges maybe 6-8 hours a day, always supervised. The past few days Mocha has been a little sleepier and quieter, and she has had a very light cough (think a cough every few hours), but nothing too concerning. She chokes on kibble every so often, so we figured the cough had something to do with that. Last night she collapsed and seemed very lethargic. She refused to eat, even refusing duck soup and Ferretone - both of which she is normally crazy about. She was not drinking either. At this point I divided the Critter Nation so her cagemate Vanilla does not disturb her and so I can keep track of her pee and poop. I stayed up all night with her, and she did not seem to get better or worse. When I woke up this morning, she was active but circling her hospital cage at a walk, over and over. I've never seen her do this before. At this point she had eaten some of her food, there were a few pee spots and a tiny bit of feces. I offered her some water and food with a syringe and she ate well. We thought we were out of the woods. About an hour later this morning she collapsed. She was limp and barely responding to stimulus. A few minutes later she had a seizure lasting maybe 30 seconds, and once that was over she had much milder convulsions every 10 minutes or so. At this point we were worried she wasn't going to make it through the hour. We rubbed honey on her gums in case this was insulinoma but it did not seem to perk her up. A little while after I force fed her some duck soup with a syringe, careful not to aspirate her, and she perked up just a little. At this point she peed in my lap, and the urine was a dark green clear color. We cleaned her up and put her back in her cage to rest. Now she is walking around, lapping duck soup and water from a syringe, and seems much better. I am worried of course that she is going to go downhill again, but for now she seems stable at least. I know this was long, but I want to include all of her symptoms and everything we witnessed. While our vet is wonderful and she has experience treating ferrets, she really hasn't seen that many ferret diseases, mainly general checkups. So any advice you guys can give will help her cover all the bases! What would you suspect in this case? What do you think our vet should be looking for? I'm thinking she should look into insulinoma or maybe heartworms. I honestly did not think to worry about heartworm, an inexcusable oversight, but we were trying to keep her out of our vet's office until she received her two distemper vaccines, since our vet has seen cases of canine distemper. Now I'm worried because the symptoms of ferret heartworm seem to match. What else should our vet look into? Obviously I don't expect a diagnosis over the internet and know these are very open ended symptoms. I just need some idea of what we should be looking into and how to approach this. My fiance and I are very scared for Mocha's wellness and want to make sure we diagnose and treat whatever is causing her illness.
bandit99
Re:Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Sunday, April 26, 2015 1:15 AM
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Mallory

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Re:Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Sunday, April 26, 2015 2:20 AM
Thank you for the response. She has spent the evening napping next to me on the couch. A few minutes ago she woke up and seemed to lose control of her jaw and had some head twitches and frothing at the mouth. When she tries to move her motions are extremely uncoordinated, I'm worried she has some neurological issues either from her illness or from that earlier seizure. In any case I am continuing to give her food and water and hoping that she will pull through. I will make sure to get an emergency contact number for my veterinarian when I see her on Monday, because I never want to be stuck in this position again.
bandit99
Re:Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Sunday, April 26, 2015 3:15 AM
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Mallory

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Re:Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Sunday, April 26, 2015 4:04 AM
I live in a pretty small town, and other than the emergency vet our vets all close completely after hours. Calling only refers you to the ER vet's number, but unfortunately they are not only inexperienced when it comes to exotics but downright irresponsible. I know my vet gives her personal number to clients in specific circumstances - we for instance have verified we can have her "on call" if we breed our husky in the future in case of birth complications. I will talk to her about establishing this now since we have animals the ER cannot treat. Unfortunately I have no way of getting ahold of her or else Mocha would have seen her the instant she started collapsing. 

I'm afraid Mocha isn't getting better. I put her in her cage so I could clean the bottom half for our other ferret and when I looked up she was drooling like crazy, throwing her head up into the air and falling over backwards over and over :( Her mouth was convulsing and I had to get her so she didn't hurt herself. She's asleep in my lap now. It seems like the only time she sleeps is when I'm holding her, and when she isn't sleeping she's stumbling around miserably. Looks like another all nighter. 
bandit99
Re:Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Sunday, April 26, 2015 4:28 AM
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bandit99
Re:Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Sunday, April 26, 2015 6:08 AM
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bandit99
Re:Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Monday, April 27, 2015 8:03 AM
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Mallory

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Re:Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Monday, April 27, 2015 11:13 AM
Sorry to have stopped replying as much. Our internet router died and we have to wait until tomorrow for them to come replace it :( So I have to type everything from my phone which is pretty cumbersome. I have another thread of the same nature going at the holistic ferret forum and have a few more updates there.

Basically she is doing much better. She is active, walking normally, even eating and drinking well although mostly by hand. But the seizure left her blind. She can't navigate well and she's very unsure of everything. We have to keep her separated from her cage are Vanilla because Vanilla tries to initiate play and it just scares Mocha :( but as I type this she is throwing her kibble and litter all over and being as playful as she can. I will be making an appointment with the vet for today and will let you know how that goes! Thank you so much for all your help.
bandit99
Re:Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Monday, April 27, 2015 2:27 PM
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unclejoe
Re:Seizure and Lethargy - Need Advice - Monday, April 27, 2015 3:11 PM
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