here_i_am
Well-Known Member
Hi everybody. We're deperate for some advice/opinions on one of our male Leopards, Alice(!)
It was first noticed that when he was eating, his mouth wasn't opening very wide at all, over a year ago. He really struggled to eat. We took him to our local vet (just because we happened to be going there with a cat anyway), but he just referred us to Ashley Vets in Manchester (http://ashleigh-veterinary-centre.com/
). There, they put him under GA to see if they could manually open his mouth. They could, and they said it was normal, so it wasn't anything to do with the mouth itself, but was probably nerve damage that would degenerate until he would be unable to feed normally and have to be tube fed. They just said to cut his food up for him.
However, he seemed to get worse, so we took him to a third vet (Birchheath exotic vets in Tarporley*http://www.birchheathexoticvets.com/
*). They admitted him, along with our other Leopard Hugo (who is fine, but went to keep Alice company). They sedated him and xrayed him, which showed no abnormalities. Mouth again was manipulated normally under sedation. They took bloods, which showed that his urea levels were very high (8+), showing massive dehydration. He also had a high white blood cell count, indicating an infection at some point. However, the vet didn't think either of this was anything to do with his mouth problems. They also took faecal samples from both torts, which showed roundworm, but said not to worm him until he improves health-wise.
So, because of the dehydration, they fitted a feeding tube and sent him home after showing us how to feed him. He is having Critical Care fed to him twice a day, along with 0.45ml of metacam of a morning. The tube was fitted on the 14th of March, so 11 days ago.
Tonight, he is very poorly. His head is hanging out of his shell and flopped onto the floor. He isn't bringing his head back in and is very unresponsive to anything. Mum has spoken to the on-call vet at Birch Heath, and arranged to take him back tomorrow morning.
Does anybody have any ideas of what could be wrong now? He's really really deteriorated since going to the vets. Could the tube have moved and we've been feeding him into his chest cavity or something? Or perhaps an infection at the tube site (although it looks fine)?
The vet on the phone didn't really offer any ideas.
We'd be very grateful for any advice as to what we could try next. It looks very bad tonight*
Thank you in advance.
It was first noticed that when he was eating, his mouth wasn't opening very wide at all, over a year ago. He really struggled to eat. We took him to our local vet (just because we happened to be going there with a cat anyway), but he just referred us to Ashley Vets in Manchester (http://ashleigh-veterinary-centre.com/
). There, they put him under GA to see if they could manually open his mouth. They could, and they said it was normal, so it wasn't anything to do with the mouth itself, but was probably nerve damage that would degenerate until he would be unable to feed normally and have to be tube fed. They just said to cut his food up for him.
However, he seemed to get worse, so we took him to a third vet (Birchheath exotic vets in Tarporley*http://www.birchheathexoticvets.com/
*). They admitted him, along with our other Leopard Hugo (who is fine, but went to keep Alice company). They sedated him and xrayed him, which showed no abnormalities. Mouth again was manipulated normally under sedation. They took bloods, which showed that his urea levels were very high (8+), showing massive dehydration. He also had a high white blood cell count, indicating an infection at some point. However, the vet didn't think either of this was anything to do with his mouth problems. They also took faecal samples from both torts, which showed roundworm, but said not to worm him until he improves health-wise.
So, because of the dehydration, they fitted a feeding tube and sent him home after showing us how to feed him. He is having Critical Care fed to him twice a day, along with 0.45ml of metacam of a morning. The tube was fitted on the 14th of March, so 11 days ago.
Tonight, he is very poorly. His head is hanging out of his shell and flopped onto the floor. He isn't bringing his head back in and is very unresponsive to anything. Mum has spoken to the on-call vet at Birch Heath, and arranged to take him back tomorrow morning.
Does anybody have any ideas of what could be wrong now? He's really really deteriorated since going to the vets. Could the tube have moved and we've been feeding him into his chest cavity or something? Or perhaps an infection at the tube site (although it looks fine)?
The vet on the phone didn't really offer any ideas.
We'd be very grateful for any advice as to what we could try next. It looks very bad tonight*
Thank you in advance.
