when it rains it pours
A while back, I took in a young female pit/pit mix. she had only her first set of shots (courtesy of the people who found her) and one deworming and mange. upon setting eyes on her, i gave her some revolution, and as soon as it was time, took her in to get her follow-up worming (deemed unneccessary by the vet due to the revolution) and for her second set of shots. We had no idea if she was spayed, but we suspected not. her mange very slwoly cleared up (and i skin scrape showed nothing, so we thought it might have been sarcoptic, thankfully, rather than demodectic). However, soon after she got her second set of shots, she was playing with our other dog and knocked over a glass jar and cut her shoulder. back to the vet for stiches, and since we had to call him in from vacation, he didn't have time while she was out to spay her too. so we had to wait for a while so that she didn't go under twice in quick succession. well, a couple days after her stitches came out (I took them out with the vet's permission, since I'm hoping to get accepted into vet school next year), she went into heat. AARGH. well, she stopped bleeding, and we waited a couple weeks after that, and made her appointment. apparently she was STILL a little bit in heat, so her healing might be a little bit slower, but at least she's spayed! however, she was very sore and groggy when she got home, and I really question why she wasn't sent hoem with pain meds. she also vomited for almost 24 hours afterwards-we took her into the vet the next morning early and he gave her a pill to calm her stomach, and she only vomited once so far after that. but we're only nearing about 60 hours now...at least she's started eating a bit.
however, that same night that i was mopping up vomit, my eldest ferret (8ish at best guess, he's a rescue) presented with classic signs of insulinoma-hind end weakness, pawing at mouth, lethargy, weight loss. we whipped out the blood glucometer and sure enough, BG of 59. my second elderly rescued insulinomic. however, he's in much frailer shape than the other, and is not a good candidate for surgery (according to the vet too, not just me). he's always been kinda frail, but healthy until now. so, he went in to the vet with the spayed dog and got a prescription for prednisone. however, the vet here gave me a freakin PILL, but it's just trying to figure out what dosage he needs, so in 20 days i'm suposed to go back and recheck his BG (though you can be sure i'll be doing it weekly at home). I'm gonna make the vet give me an oral liquid of pred like I had for my last ferret-have you ever tried to pill a ferret that doesn't want the pill? no thank you, not doing that to him every single day for the rest of his life. he's happy though, he gets hand fed a chicken baby food/whipping cream/ferretone mix to steady his BG and to put some weight on him several times a day. he adores that stuff, thankfully! however, the pedialyte to rehyrdrate him is apparenlty gross, and he resiusts that. but he still drinks a bit on his own, so hopefully he'll rehydrate fast and we won't have to force that every day.
(during this whole couple-month period, one of my other ferrets also came down with a kidney infection which we got treated but he recovered slowly from. he's all better now, thankfully, but he gave us a good scare, and almost had to go BACK into the vet after a couple days of intesive care and meds due to taking so long to regain energy and weight.)
and to top it all off, last weekend we went on a long trip and found out our brand new freakin engine has major issues. so, that will have to be fixed before our next LONG trip in two weeks. AARGH. (and as a little bit of background, i work at a university as a graduate student, so they thought it would be funny to cut all summer grad pay to HALF of what we usually get. HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE ON THAT!?!?!! what a nice little surprise that was at the beginning of the summer. so I'm dirt poor, but that won't stop me from taking care of my kids, don't anyone worry about that!)
however, that same night that i was mopping up vomit, my eldest ferret (8ish at best guess, he's a rescue) presented with classic signs of insulinoma-hind end weakness, pawing at mouth, lethargy, weight loss. we whipped out the blood glucometer and sure enough, BG of 59. my second elderly rescued insulinomic. however, he's in much frailer shape than the other, and is not a good candidate for surgery (according to the vet too, not just me). he's always been kinda frail, but healthy until now. so, he went in to the vet with the spayed dog and got a prescription for prednisone. however, the vet here gave me a freakin PILL, but it's just trying to figure out what dosage he needs, so in 20 days i'm suposed to go back and recheck his BG (though you can be sure i'll be doing it weekly at home). I'm gonna make the vet give me an oral liquid of pred like I had for my last ferret-have you ever tried to pill a ferret that doesn't want the pill? no thank you, not doing that to him every single day for the rest of his life. he's happy though, he gets hand fed a chicken baby food/whipping cream/ferretone mix to steady his BG and to put some weight on him several times a day. he adores that stuff, thankfully! however, the pedialyte to rehyrdrate him is apparenlty gross, and he resiusts that. but he still drinks a bit on his own, so hopefully he'll rehydrate fast and we won't have to force that every day.
(during this whole couple-month period, one of my other ferrets also came down with a kidney infection which we got treated but he recovered slowly from. he's all better now, thankfully, but he gave us a good scare, and almost had to go BACK into the vet after a couple days of intesive care and meds due to taking so long to regain energy and weight.)
and to top it all off, last weekend we went on a long trip and found out our brand new freakin engine has major issues. so, that will have to be fixed before our next LONG trip in two weeks. AARGH. (and as a little bit of background, i work at a university as a graduate student, so they thought it would be funny to cut all summer grad pay to HALF of what we usually get. HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE ON THAT!?!?!! what a nice little surprise that was at the beginning of the summer. so I'm dirt poor, but that won't stop me from taking care of my kids, don't anyone worry about that!)