Dear Latisha:
>... I just noticed yesterday in my male albino that he has some funny
>looking fecies. It is runny at times, but it started to form up some
>now. All of a sudden, he is starting to have funny looking green colored
>diarrhea. It really scares me. I have isolated him into the other room
>away from the other kids in his own cage. Could it be from Laxitone? He
>just had a hairball treatment 2 days before it was noticed. I am wondering
>if this has effects. He is going to be going to the vet, but I can't get
>him in until Tues afternoon. If I can get some information from anyone
>who has had this and Dr. Williams it would be great. Thanks so much...
Unfortunately, odd-colored feces is really a non-specific sign, so it is
difficult to give any useful information at this point. Anything that
increases the speed of the ingesta through the GI tract results in a
greenish color and a semi-liquid appearance. In this case, I would suggest
running some bloodwork at the vets, and institution of a bland, highly
digestible diet until the bloodwork comes back. We may end up simply just
going withthe bland diet for a while without having to resort to more
stringent measures. I generally don't recommend antibiotics for every
case of diarrhea - very few cases are bacterial in origin - the most just
have to do with the ferret eating something that he/she shouldn't.
Usually Laxatone doesn't cause this - it could, conceivably in massive
amounts, but it rarely does.
Wish I could be more specific, but at this point, diarrhea is just
diarrhea. Let's look for a gastrointestinal misadventure, and see what
the vet has to say on Tuesday. Remember, diarrhea on its own, without
accompanying lethargy, dehydration, or vomiting, is rarely immediately
life-threatening, so let's not panic here.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
[Posted in FML issue 3313]
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