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]