Sunday, July 14, 2013

there it was, hiding just around the corner

Sian got really sick a few days ago.  I went down to play and clean ferret rooms, and I always start with the big guys' room.  So I get them out, and they're exploring and playing just like usual.  No problem whatsoever.

I finish up, get the big guys in their room, and go get food (hairless mice and pork heart, plus supplemental baby food for Hiko).  Everybody is chowing down and loving the heart and whole prey (which they had not been able to have for awhile).  I go to clean up the girls' room, and get Rula fed and put up so Anya could come out.

That all done, I'm about to shut lights off and go upstairs, when I hear this long whimpering sound.  I pause, wait, and then I hear hacking, then the sound of vomiting coming from the big guys' room.

I get there, peek over the plexi glass and see Sian under the cage, alternating between splayed out and pacing and heaving.  She's trying to bury herself under piddle pads, twisting and turning - doing everything that lets me know something is hurting her.

I get in, try to persuade her to come out, and at first she won't.  So I keep talking, softly and calmly, all the while thinking she swallowed some part of the mouse she had been eating wrong, and it's either stuck in her mouth, throat or worse somewhere along the route to her stomach or IN her stomach.

Finally I get her to come out, but she's restless, trying to heave, breathing hard.  She then goes to the piddle pads, goes to the bathroom, and when she's done, I look - orange, watery stool.  Basically orange, mucus filled water, is a more apt description.

WTF.

I get ahold of her, and she's shaking.  My heart is just sinking to my toes at  this point, but I get her scruffed, pry her mouth open.  Clear.  I then stick a finger into her mouth, feeling as far back down her throat as possible.  Clear.  [and this is why I love my guys.  She just let me do this.  Not a bite, not a wiggle, not a scratch.  All while feeling horribly ill].

I massage her throat, her stomach.  Throat doesn't elicit a reaction.  But I get to her stomach?  It's tight and feels distended.    I start thinking oh my god, blockage, and when the food hit, she went downhill.  I let her down, and she just kind of lays there, shaking and spacing out.  Whatever is going on, I'm seeing my little girl actually in the beginning stages of shock

I go upstairs, get pumpkin into a large needle-less syringe and head back downstairs.  I scruff her and give her just a little bit.  Then, I hear this loud noise.  It's coming from her stomach.

Sounds like a lot of trapped gas.  So, then I start thinking, major GI upset.  I pick her up from where she's laying, hold her and just tell her "you're alright, you're alright," and every time I do, she presses her forehead against my cheek, and lays there shivering.

So my night went like that.  Every time she got up and used the bathroom, she'd get a little pumpkin and I'd hold her, or lay her in their plush bed on the floor and keep her covered.  By 5 am, she was feeling well enough to give me a kiss or two and even climb into the first floor of the cage.  By this time, too, her poos had changed from that watery mess to very small and loosely formed ones.  I gave her one more dose of pumpkin, and then let her settle in the cage with Hiko and Yogi for a few hours while I caught some sleep.

Got up around nine, and although she was still a little "quiet," she actually jumped out of the cage when she heard me coming and was waiting at the door.  She was stretching and moving, everything she couldn't do a few hours earlier (in fact, when she was bad, she'd shove her legs under her, get her torso into a scrunched loaf, and stick her hind end up in the air.  It was so sad.). 

I pick her up as I come into the room and she's smelling me and giving kisses.  When I lay down, I have her in the crook of my arm, and whenever I'm close enough she kisses and snuggles, and then splays out, upside down.  She was a pretty happy girl, then, and you could feel the relief pouring off of her.

Poos are still a bit small, but each day they get more normal.  A vet, back when Yogi had been sick with diarrhea, did tell me that it could take a few days to regain volume in the stool, and Sian seems to be keeping that notion alive.

She's eating well, too.  The night following the incident, I gave them goat meat and chicken necks.  She settled down right away and started eating.  She didn't eat a lot, but she did eat.  Last night, they had beef heart and chicken necks, and this time she ate a more normal meal.

About ten years have been shaved off my life with this stunt.  And it coming from Sian is a surprise, since in the almost 5 years I've had her, I've never had her have a sickness.  Not once.  Reaction to distemper?  Check.   Trauma to her nerves due to a misplaced shot of Benadryl given by a vet tech (to reduce another reaction)?  Check.  Just no sicknesses.

Well, it seems we've broken our streak.  Oh, well.  I'm just overjoyed my little girl is okay again <3 p="">
 

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