Now, as many know, Scooter has had on-and-off trouble with liver results
for about 6 months: bilrubin up, atypical lymphocytosis when biopsied,
etc. -- never normal, just different levels of not-good.
 
During this time he has also had chronic gastritis that greatly thickened
and enlarged his stomach for which we could find no cure, and twice had
furballs despite precautions.  This is a chicken and the egg problem: did
furballs happen and cause or worsen gastritis, or did the gastritis cause
him to be unable to handle ingested fur, or did each worsen the other?
We don't know though we lean toward the last explanation.
 
He also had a left adrenal growth which arrived without symptoms till he
had an acute urinary blockage.
 
For about a half year he has been on antibiotics most of the time.
 
The little guy has been through a lot in six months.
 
A while ago we decided to find out if he might be allergic to normal
ferret and cat foods.  Folks on the FHL were marvelous, practically coming
out of the woodwork to suggest alternatives.  We settled on Hills feline
z/d with lamb baby food as a treat.  Tooty's results have been no less
than spectacular.  (It took about 3 weeks to see the improvement.) He
began playing again at normal ferret levels last week and his stools have
firmed up marvelously, with rectal prolapses also stopping and foul odor
(beyond normal feces odor) stopping.
 
Now we have even more good news: his liver blood test results were normal!
 
As Dr. Bruce Williams explains in part of his article, "Controversy and
Confusion in Interpretation of Ferret Clinical Pathology" at
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/Clin_Path/ClinPath.html , and in past FHL
posts there are liver results that can happen from gastric disturbances.
We can attest that these can become rather pronounced and last for quite
an extended time.
 
BTW, you know how everyone talks about the ferrets needing less of the
concentrated foods to achieve the same nutrition?  Well, it turns out
that very little z/d is needed to supply enough nutrition even compared
to the high-quality ferret foods.  It strikes me that this may be useful
information for some sick and recovering ferrets with other problems.  The
volume reduction is amazing.  (It is an expensive food so he gets most of
it: the others get to raid it during their daily hours of play and sleep
together when it is the only food available, then he alone has it at
night.)
[Posted in FML issue 3565]