Ferret Post Surgery- need help!

Question
QUESTION: Hello... I'm a very concerned mom.  My ferret had surgery for a MASSIVE Adrinal Tumor.  The vet showed me the tumor and it was so big the kidney needed to be removed as well.  During surgery the vet had to block the aorta for 30 sec at a time otherwise my Ferret would have bled out.  The vet didn't expect Sid to make it but he did however, he is not using his back legs at all.  They have been getting warmer and pinker as the days go by.


He came home two days ago and I'm very worried, his skin is clay like so I'm sure he's dehydrated.. he came home from the vet that way.  I got some pedialite and have been giving him that every few hours. Today he had a good 20 CC. He's not drinking or eating on his own yet.  I'm giving him chicken baby food he had about 7 cc of that.  I called the vet and told him about his skin and he said to continue the pedialite.

My concern is if I'm doing the right thing?  The vet thinks he'll regain use of his back legs but we can't be sure.  Sid will be 7 in May.  Another fact is that I can pull his hair out easily in clumps although it doesn't come out unles I pull on it.  

Help please!... He shows a little improvement everyday but is it enough?

Thank you so much,
Sharleen

ANSWER: Hi Sharleen:

WOW! That must have been one heck of an adrenal surgery and KUDOS to your awesome vet!! And to think your ferret is 7 years old - I'm really impressed to be honest with you.  YES, definitely keep up with the pedialyte; more if he will take it.  

You will need to check him for dehydration several times a day. Do this by pinching up the skin on the back of his neck. If it stays tented up, he is dehydrated and needs to go to the vet to get sub-cutaneous fluids (under the skin).  As long as the skin snaps back down, he is not dehydrated - you are keeping up with his post-surgery needs and just keep up what you're doing. IF the skin doesn't snap back down, BTW, since it's the weekend, YES, it IS urgent enough to take him to an emergency vet hospital for sub-Q fluids (up to 3 times a day is sometimes necessary).  What you need to know is that if you can stay up on this and not let him get dehydrated, he is probably going to pull through this, which is awesome! Fluids is the thing you need to concentrate on right now.

Within in couple more days, you are going to need to add some nutrition. If he won't eat his food, get some Hill's A/D (canned feline food made especially for post-surgical and sick carnivores). DO be sure to check with your vet - that's where you have to get the food anyway. He may want him on a formulation that's easy on the kidneys (there is such a thing). You will scoop out a tablespoon or two out of the can and warm it, add enough water to make it gravy thickness. Dip in your finger, then touch your finger in the ferret's mouth over and over again until he is licking it from your fingers on his own; then that is usually followed by him eating it from the dish by himself. Within a few days he should work up to eating 1/2 can (made into gravy) on his own over the course of a day; and if he's a big ferret, he may even eat close to a full can (not at one time, of course).  Keep unused portion refrigerated and feed it 5 to 6 times a day if necessary - 3 to 4 times minimum. They won't usually eat it cold, so don't leave any uneaten "soup" in the cage with him. He should eat whatever he's going to eat while you're holding him and finger-feeding him. Leave dry food in the cage/ and leave fresh water in the cage at all times. If it were me, I'd use bottled water since his kidney function is affected - it will be that much less work his little kidneys will have to do if the water is filtered already.

Hang in there and don't give up. You have a real miracle there on your hands!  Give him lots of love, gently massage his little legs with baby oil to encourage circulation, but stay away from any incisions as not to make them start bleeding. Just a very very gentle, slow massage is all that is needed and the oil will help move your hands more smoothly. Wipe the oil off with a tissue when finished massaging.   My sick ferrets always enjoy being rocked. I "swaddle" them just like you do a newborn baby (wrap firmly in a receiving blanket) and lay them across my chest and gently rock them while humming a very very low moan. THis low moan is almost a primal sound (make the lowest hmmmmmm you can and inhale then hmmmmmmmmm when you exhale) and really relaxes them.

Typical that the fur would come out - from the adrenal AND from the shock of surgery. He may lose all his fur and regrow new fur.  If he is a sable, that would explain the dark skin. As the skin gets closer to sprouting new fur, it will actually look like bruising - it will darken, then suddenly a couple days later he will have dark fuzz where the "bruised" areas were. Again, very gentle finger massaging with oil will help circulation.

Best of luck - please update me. Keep up with the fluids especially;then worry about food in another day or so. You can offer some warm chicken baby food meat if you want to. A friend of mine swears by baby food chicken and noodles for her sick ferrets. As long as it's only for a few days, that would be okay. The only thing wrong with that is the noodles aren't "meat" and ferrets are obligates carnivores, which means they are meat-only eaters. I think the chicken and noodles may be a bit more palatable though, so it's worth a try if you want to try it; it certainly won't hurt anything. It will be a real milestone when he starts eating ANYTHING, so it's worth a try.

I'll be waiting for an update...and will be here to help if you need me over the weekend.

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Jacquie,  You made me feel so much better.  Today is 7 days from his surgery and I have to say he's doing a bit better.  He's now up to 30 cc of Pedia and about 8 cc of baby food/ AD mix.  His urine is a very light yellow color (almost clear) and he's not really defecating that much.  But it's not green anymore.  His skin is still a bit clay like but he's looking so much better.  (his nose is nice and pink now).  Oh, he is eating his Ferret Vit on his own... he loves loves loves that stuff!

He's been getting tons of cuddle time.  He's such a mush...love him!  He's not eating on his own but I really think he wants to be babied right now and I'm happy to do it.  He's tucking himself in his blankies by himself now. : )  I do have to switch his bedding 3-4 times a day because he doesn't have control over his bowels... but I volunteer at a wildlife center so it's no biggie for me.  (I have to say the ferrets are most like the groundhogs and skunks... so cute)

I do think he's in some pain, his incision looks great and almost healed actually (no stitches the vet uses a type of glue) but he tenses when I touch around it a little.  His poor little belly muscles must feel like jelly.  I wish he didn't have to go through this - poor baby.

Sid is very special to me.  He's my first and only ferret and I'm a dog trainer so he's trained in certain things - retrieve, coming when called, targeting objects, figure 8's around my legs and more... and often helps me with some distraction work with other dogs.  He's my ferret dog : ) and named after the Sloth from Ice Age.  I just love him like crazy...


I'm hoping he will walk again... <--- all my students are pulling for him!

I will continue to keep you posted on his progress. Again, thank you!

ANSWER: Hi Sharleen & Sid:

Thanks so much for the additional information. It sounds like Sid is in great hands. My only recommendation would be to go a little easy on the Ferret Vite. If you read the ingredients, you will see that it's somewhat high in sugars (malt syrup, maltodextrin, molasses). I give my kids Ferretone cut 1/2 with virgin olive oil (which is 100% good for them). The reason to cut it in half with olive oil is that some of the vitamins in Ferretone will accumulate and can be dangerous. Cut in half, though, a ferret can have a good tablespoon or so a couple times a week safely (consider if you give other vitamins though also, as they will all tend to add up and the ferret can't eliminate them, so if you continue to feed the FerretVite, give less FerretVite and half as much Ferretone/Olive oil mixture - it's the total vitamin intake that can become dangerous.

Sounds like Sid is really well trained. Mine comes when called and does a few things too - as an "only child", the whole world revolves around him LOL. I love ferret kisses the best! One thing my ferret does is open and close the bedroom door when I ask him to AND he can open all the dresser drawers and my desk drawers! I found him one morning in my pencil drawer of the desk - it must be about 1-1/2" deep and there he was!! He had crawled in through the back and wiggled through to the front on his belly, but once he got there, he was stuck and couldn't open the drawer to get out.He gets himself in the darndest messes! The funniest thing Dusty Butters (my baby) does is to play soccer by himself, bouncing the ball off the woodwork, never missing it and slamming it around sometimes for half an hour at a time! If I roll a little ball at him, he will bat it right back to me over and over again. This is the first ferret I've had who was this interested in these kinds of things.

Well, please give Sid a hug for me. Don't forget to gently massage that skin that looks claylike. Give him lots of kisses and I'm sure he's going to be a success story. I will be anxiously waiting to hear from you!

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I have good news / bad news.  Sid ate some of his hard food on his own. YEAY!!! but when I looked at him this afternoon I can see his ribs and his spine...sigh.  I was getting a little skinny right before surgery but this isn't good.  I'm scared.  He had a followup appointment on Thursday.  What should I do.  This little man is the pickiest eater on the planet!  : o

Thanks in advance

Answer
Hi Sharleen & Sid:

Have you been able to get any A/D or baby food chicken down him yet? The fact that he ate even a few pieces of kibble on his own is AWESOME! You might want to take a second little bowl and put kibble in it with a bit of warm water on it and a few dribbles of Ferretone to encourage him to eat. They rarely turn down anything with Ferretone on it!

Ferrets seem to be that way - one day they seem to be okay, the next suddenly they seem soooo skinny...that's typical ferret.  He will do the same way when the weight goes back on. As long as you are getting Pedialyte down him (a MINIMUM of 30cc 3-4 times a day) and either some kibble and/or some Hill's A/D - canned feline - (get it from your vet's office) or even chicken baby food, he will be okay. Be sure to offer it a minimum of 3 or 4 times a day - more if you can. Again, a dribble or two of Ferretone may encourage him to eat the baby food or A/D too. Just be sure not to overdose on the Ferretone - remember no more than 2 tablespoons per week (or cut it half and half with virgin olive oil and you can give up to 4 TBLSP and that will go a long way when you give it a few drops at a time.

Same with fluids - if you are having trouble getting fluids down him....fluids are more important than food. If you can't get him to take them, warm them to just above room temperature, stir through it with your finger to be sure there are no hot spots, then dribble a couple drops of Ferretone on the top and offer it to the ferret. The Ferretone will stay on the top, which will keep the ferret drinking trying to get to the Ferretone :-)  Momma's little secret and it works really well.

Hang in there - keep him warm, hold him and spend time with him as much as you possibly can. If you can get ahold of a sling like they use for babies - that's PERFECT to keep him with you while you can still get things done around the house. As long as he doesn't get jostled around too much, he'd probably rather be with you than away from you. The other option is to move his cage from room to room with you and keep talking to him, then stop about every hour for ten or fifteen minutes and rock him and talk to him, gently stroke his legs and offer fluids, etc.

Hope that helps - keep me updated.  I think it sounds like he's doing better today than yesterday actually.  They can change so quick - that's why it's important to keep on top of it so much the first few days/week.  I think he can make it if you can keep fluids and some food in him. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers