She was fine yesterday, taking her medicines and eating her smoothy with gusto, but around 8pm, as I went into the bedroom to go to bed, I noticed she was just lying under the chair we have in the corner.

I called Philip and we agreed she looked completely confused and out of it, plus her head was drooping and her eyes half-closed.  She couldn’t walk at all and seemed to be dragging herself around.
I held her for a while, until she weakly struggled to be put down, and then I placed her back in the drawer where she sleeps.
Of course that was the end of a decent night’s sleep for me.  I was up practically every half hour to check on her, terrified of finding her dead.  If I thought she was stirring, I put her on the newspaper and she piddled slightly, then I put her back in her drawer.
By 2am I was surfing to find out what the symptoms were for either lack of potassium or excessive potassium in an animal.  I found that she seemed to be suffering from hypokalemia – low potassium levels.
Although it was to do with cats, the symptoms seemed to be the same as what Kaos had ….
“The main effect of severe hypokalemia is generalized muscle weakness. Affected cats have difficulty in getting up and walking, and may appear almost “drunk” because of their weakness. A common and characteristic sign of the muscle weakness is the inability to raise the head into a normal position, so that the head is held down. Hypokalemia can also cause marked depression and lack of appetite.“
Of course it had to happen during a long weekend, when my vet’s surgery was shut.
Philip and I were up early trying to work out how we could fix the problem.  I was in a dither because the Spirolactone was supposed to be good potassium-wise, so was terrified to treat Kaos for low potassium and find that the stuff I gave her, in fact, killed her.
There wasn’t much about symptoms for hyperkalemia – high potassium levels – for me to check.
We called several vet surgeries and they were either closed or the vet on duty wasn’t ferret knowledgeable.  I then found a vet fairly close by listed in my own vet page (Duh!  It took me half-an-hour to figure that one out – fool that I am!) that was open on public holidays.
We rang and thank God the vet who was listed as ferret knowledgeable was on duty.  Philip spoke to him and he said he’d prepare some medication to get her potassium sorted out so Philip has driven up to Whitfords to collect it.
I hope to God that it works, just to get her back to some semblance of normality.  For the first time ever she showed no interest in her Chinese medicine this morning and it was only when I smudged the pet milk on her nose that she started to lick at the dish, and she was very unimpressed when I gave her her Western medicines.
I just put her on the newspaper and she piddled a tiny amount and it was very dark.  I am so worried that her kidneys are beginning to fail – she doesn’t seem to want to drink any water, even when I put it on my finger against her nose.
Hopefully the medication Philip brings back will manage to bring her out of this slump otherwise tomorrow is going to be an extremely sad day :-( (

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Filed under: Cardiomyopathy • Ferret Health • Ferret Illnesses

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