Clooney's In the Hospital...

We had a stepping incident this morning....frankly I am surprised we haven't had this before now - the ferrets are always under foot.  They often get slid across the floor as you catch them with your foot - Theo thinks this is the best game EVER!

This was more of a step on the ferret occurrence and it caused some issues for my Clooney.  I called my vet but they couldn't see him until late in the day and suggested the emergency vet route.  I ended up taking him to Avian & Exotics who specialize in ferrets among other things.

When we got there the initial exam seemed to go well - he was alert and moving around and seemed pretty okay.  The vet gave me the option of watching him or doing an x-ray to be certain.  I opted for the x-ray and I am so thankful I did.  Ended up that Clooney was bleeding into his chest!  This would have likely been fatal had we not found it.  So - we talked about the need for a chest tube and exploratory surgery to find the source of the bleeding.  The prognosis was not great.  There was a lot of blood - they pulled out 25 ccs which is lots for a little ferret.

Thankfully the vet did another test - a packed cell volume test.  She was clever enough to test the blood they took from his vein and compare it to the blood they took from his chest.  Vein was 35% which is very low for a ferret and chest was 50% which indicated to her that perhaps the bleeding had resolved itself and that we might be a bit better off than we thought.

The current plan is wait and see.  They will continue to monitor and do the packed cell volume test as a way to sort of determine if he is still bleeding internally.  If his numbers go down, that will be bad - potentially a transfusion and maybe surgery.  If they hold steady or go up - this is good!!  I picked him up from the vet and delivered him to the overnight hospital where they can continue to monitor him.  He was scratching at the carrier to get out on the way - a little bit of spunk seems like a good thing.

The vet at the overnight hospital made me feel a bit less optimistic - we still are not out of the woods.  We talked about best and worst case scenarios - my brain always goes to worst and then thinks up even more awful stuff.  Trying hard not to do that.  One good thing - the vet tech from my vet's office happens to be working tonight so he will be with Clooney until 2 am.  Somehow I feel better that he is with someone who knows us.

I left my little man all snug in his favorite bed from home and covered up with his favorite blanket.  We will be at the ready for any middle of the night calls and will decide based on tonight whether we move him back to the vet or just leave him at the 24 hr place if he has to stay for longer.

Please get well my sweet ferret boy...

Here are some pics from the vets office taken this afternoon...