Random Musings > Where The Wild Things Are

The pet-specific bad news thread

(1/130) > >>

Kathy:
Pets, although important family members, aren't people, and problems relating to them, although sometimes heart-breaking, can seem trivial in comparison to the tribulations faced by hoomin beans. So I thought a pet-specific "Bad News" thread might be appropriate.

Anyway, Wellesley the ferret is in a bad way. He's always been fat and cheerful, but late last year he developed a peculiarly distended belly, and was diagnosed with adrenal disease. The vet began hormonal treatment, and we hoped all would be well. Then he got flu over Christmas (he caught it from Kitty, who was severely ill and also lost an eye in a fight with a cat), and then he began to waste away and not eat. We're pretty sure he has insulinoma - an insulin-secreting tumour on the pancreas - which can't be surgically treated given his age and condition. We're currently having to force-feed him every couple of hours, and we're due to pick up some pills to alleviate his symptoms later today. But he can't be cured, and he's going to need constant supervision even if he does start eating of his own accord. 

matthew:
Sorry to hear that Kathy,

it sounds like your mustelids are going through the wars at the moment though Kitty may have started her own battle.

Kathy:
Pets are quite binary, aren't they? Wellesley spent most of Monday semi-conscious and on a drip, and looking so emaciated as to be skeletal. We were having to syringe food in to his mouth. Today, his body weight is 20% greater, and he's cheerfully troughing down about 3 x the RDA of hi-calorie recovery food each day.  ::-) :thumbsup:

matthew:
Yes, I know that feeling.

Step one, elderly cat looking sorry for itself, not eating/drinking loosing weight.
Step two, put unusually docile cat in basket and take to vet.
Step three, vet diagnoses raised temp but no obvious cause. Administers antibiotics and steroid injection.
Step four, take cat home, open basket and watch cat disappear outside.
Step five watch cat return to garden with wild rabbit hanging from mouth.

Rinse and repeat on a 12 month basis.

redshift:
Aye.

Tuesday: Charlie (8 months old) looking a bit quiet
Wednesday night: Charlie looking very sorry for himself, bit of a temperature, listless, a bit of pathetic squeaking when picked up. Me thinking "bloody hell, at this rate I'll be at the vet's first thing..."
Thursday 0600:  Looking a bit better, so we decide to leave him be for the day, tucked up in his basket.
Thursday evening: Wolfs dinner, beats Bonnington over the head, then tries to look pathetic again.

The previous time, he went and licked something odd somewhere and came back with his eyes crossed, stoned off his trolleys, resulting in a day's incarceration with an i.v. in his foreleg.  The vet decided he was ok when he became 'too wriggly' to take his temperature any more.


Cats.  ::-)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page