First of all, I want to thank everyone who responded to my first posting,
including Dr. Bruce Williams.  I am glad to see we have resident ferret
expert on the subscriber list.  Thanks everyone!
 
>Diarrhea, but not pooping, notwithstanding (that's a bit of an oxymoron)
 
Oops, guess I should explain myself better.  At first she had severe
diarrhea, but when she finally stopped pooping, she completely stopped,
and went at least 12 hours without eating or pooping at all.
 
>Any possibility of foreign body?
 
That was what I first thought had happened, and I even forced her to take
some petromalt.  But my vet did a stool culture and found it was absolutely
lousy with giardia.  She is also responding very well to the medication, so
I must assume, that was indeed the culprit (or at least a major part of the
problem).  She is about 100 times better, I am glad to report.
 
>You don't mention how old this ferret is
 
She is about 3 years old.
 
>Did your other ferret come up positive for Giardia - if one has it,
>usually all of them do....
 
I did not have the other one tested - just rushed my sick girl to the vet.
I was so sure it was an obstruction, that I didn't even think to bring
stool specimens, etc.  We are treating both of them on the assumption that
he has been exposed at the very least.
 
I also wanted to mention that I think I may have found the source of the
problem.  In the last issue of Modern Ferret, I read about a ferret toy
that can be made with a plastic storage container and rice.  I thought it
sounded like a good idea, so I did it.  My ferret loved it, especially
Tigger (my sick girl).  Well, from what my vet tells me, the primary source
of giardia is usually stagnant water.  Rice grows in stagnant water.  He
also mentioned that raw fruits and vegetables can be a source, and of
course the rice was raw.  So I suspect I got contaminated rice.  I do not
mean this as a slam or flame against Modern Ferret in any way.  I know
that Mary and Eric would not intentionally lead anyone to do anything that
would make their ferrets sick.  They probabaly did not even consider the
possibility of getting contaminated rice.  I know that I didn't, and I
really can't say for sure, that the rice was the source, but I can't think
of a better one.  I introduced the rice box about 3 weeks ago.  So the
timing is about right.  I sent an email off to Mary to warn them about this
potential problem.  Again, allow me to say that I love my Modern Ferret
magazine, and do not wish to cast dispersions on the Sheffermans in any
way.  In fact, contaminated rice may not be that common.  Just my luck to
get it (ha!  ha!).  The main reason I mention it at all is in case anyone
else decided to put together a rice box.  I just wanted to warn about the
possibility of giardia contamination.
 
Dr. Williams,
You mention that giardia is not usually a problem in ferrets.  Could there
be another underlying problem that allowed the giardia to get out of hand?
Any other symptoms, I should watch for?
 
I also wanted to ask about precautions I should take to avoid
recontamination.  I have removed the rice and soaked the box in chlorox.
I also scrubbed out the litterbox (in chlorox) and soaked the water dish in
a chlorox solution.  I cleaned everything with soap and water afterwards to
remove the chlorox and allowed everything to air out a bit before returning
any of these items to the ferrets.
 
Should I continue to scrub everything daily?  How long will it take to
clear up this problem?  My vet gave me medication for 5 days.  Will that
be sufficient?  As I mentioned earlier, Tigger is recovering quite well.
Her appetite is greatly improved, and she has returned to pooping normally.
My other ferret still shows no signs of a problem, but is being treated for
it anyway, just as a precaution.  I hope I am not being too long-winded
here, but I worry about my babies, and I have not seen a lot written about
giardia.  So I feel pretty ignorant about it.
 
Thanks for everyone's help,
Holly,
Tigger & Pooh
[Posted in FML issue 3288]