Dear Diddy:
>The second time it happened was the end of December...same symptoms, same
>meds.  Tonight is the third time.  Other than the vomiting and bloody
>(bright red) stools he's fine.  Eating and playing as usual.  One of the
>vet suggested he may have Inflammatory Bowel Disease but by what I've been
>reading that is extremely rare.
>
>Has this happened to anyone else here?  Does anyone have any advice (Dr
>Williams?).  I would be very grateful for any and all input.
 
This is a tough one.  Usually, when there is blood in the stool as you
describe, they don't bouce back the next day.
 
Let's talk about vomiting.  Vomiting is a fairly non-specific sign, but it
generally indicates something serious.  Ferrets generally don't vomit at
the drop of a hat (like cats.)  So I always interpret vomiting as a real
sign of something.  But what?  The most common reason for vomiting is
soemthing going on inthe GI tract, but occasionally, when you have SERIOUS
disease in other organ systems, like the urogenital tract, or the liver,
you can see vomiting.
 
The fact that we have bright red blood in the stool strongly suggests that
we have that lesion in the GI tract.  Now what does bright red blood inthe
GI tract suggest?  We.., the most common cause of bright red blood in the
GI tract is shock, and the second most common cause is bleeding from the
large intestine, or rectum.  (If the blood is from higher in the GI tract,
such as the smallintestine, or the stomach, it is usually partially
digested and no longer bright red.
 
Because your ferret is bouncing black so quickly, I'm leaning against
shock - usually after a serious enough shock episode, they don't run and
play the next day.
 
So we are most likely looking at bleeding from the large intestine (notice
I am saying "most likely" - it can really be tough making those Internat
diagnoses!)
 
Your vet mentioned "Inflammatory Bowel Disease".  Proliferative colitis
is a disease of the large intestine most often seen in young male ferrets
less than 14 months of age which results in periodic frank blood in the
stool.  It also generally reulst in frequent bowel movements with mucus
and straining, and is best diagnosed with a colonic biopsy.
 
That is at least where I would start in this case.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3312]