My 6 year old female ferret "Coco" has been hospitalized for kidney failure
(?). The doctors have been treating her with IV fluids and medication. She
has been in the hospital since November 16th, 2002 and they have been taking
blood tests and urinalysis as well as x-rays. She went from a blood urea
nitrogen (BUN) level of 310 to 132 to then up to 250. They will have to
take another blood test again to see if she improves. Any advice you have
for me would be appreciated.
11/21/02 10:46pm
Today's visit was very upsetting. She was moved from ICU to another room
where she was not incubated nor was she on IV fluids. I was told by the
receptionist after repeated questioning (because no one including the doctor
or the vet tech would come to speak with me) regarding why she was not on IV
fluids. Her response was that they had given her a bath at 4:30pm and that
they were waiting for her to dry. That was 5 hours ago. Should a sick animal
be stressed even more by giving it a bath? I understand she needs to be
clean but I just visited her on Tuesday and she looked fine. Why was an ICU
patient with serious toxic level in her blood not put back on IV drip right
away? Will this affect the blood test that was taken that night? Will it be
accurate? I went away from the Tuesday's (11/19/02) visit very happy and
upbeat but tonight's visit was very upsetting. I understand we were there 10
minutes before 10pm (due to traffic and bad weather) but I just wanted
someone to clarify why she was not on IV fluids because that was the sole
reason why she was there to be treated for. We are spending thousands of
dollars and no one person would speak with us, just for a little bit to
clarify something for us, because visiting hours were over at 10pm. So far,
she's been hospitalized since last Saturday (5 days ago) and we have not
gotten any clear answers on what exactly her illness is. If she is dying, I
would rather have her die at home or be more comfortable at home. I
mentioned about the heat and Coco not being in an incubator and the
receptionist just asked someone in there to turn it on at that moment. I
don't know if she is still being force fed because she still seems awfully
skinny? I don't know if they are keeping track of how much food she is
eating or if she is eating at all (because don't ferrets tend to eat the
food they are familiar with because of the smell that's been imprinted in
their brain at a young age) and why are they feeding her cat food (canned
and solid)? I normally feed her Totally Ferret Food. Is that okay? From the
visit on Tuesday, she looked good. But from Thursday's visit, she looked
sickly to me, like she's deteriorated. Again, why was she not put on IV
fluids right away? When I spoke with doctor on 11/17 Sunday, he said the blood
test looked serious (off the chart) and he stressed that it was a serious
condition and that it doesn't look very good. And all the doctors said they
were trying very hard to get her kidneys working again and that it was very
important to flush out the high level of toxins in her body so why wasn't she put on IV fluids right away? Her BUN level went from 310 on 11/17 to 132 on 11/19 then back up to 250 on 11/21. Another blood test will be taken tonight.
Thank you kindly for your help!
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