>Shelby or Shelby Louise as I call her has returned back to the vet and
>appears to be wasting.  Have no idea why -- electrolytes, renal function,
>CBC, chest x-ray are all normal.  She ate the first day I brought her
>home -- about 75 out of 100 kibbles in 24 hours which I felt was good
>but the next 24 hours, she at maybe a couple of kibbles.  She is being
>hand fed baby food with ensure at the vets office and the vet is trying
>to make contacts to Universities to see if there is something she is
>overlooking.  She is also on amoxicillin in combination with another
>med and her prednisone dosage has been increased.  The doc started amox.
>in case she has heliobacter and is not showing syptoms.  Shelby's final
>pathology report came back and showed adenocarcinoma but the vet told me
>it would not spread.
 
I had a ferret like this (well, sounds like anyway).  Ceci had an
undiagnosed stomach problem as a baby; he almost died.  No blockage
anyone could find, blood and other work-ups were normal.  There seemed
to be a black, tarry substance in his stomach, but lab tests were
inconclusive.  It was decided he had heliobacter and was treated
accordingly.
 
For the rest of his life, he would suddenly and unexplainedly start to
waste away.  One day he would be fine and the next he would be literally
skin and bones.
 
I am in the middle of moving and can't find anything, but there was an
article on this in one of the ferret mags about two years ago.
 
If I remember right, we fed Ceci almost exclusively on pureed ad (the
high concentrate canned food found at vet's office) whenever he started
wasting away and started him on low dosage pred.  We stopped the
antibiotic because it seemed to upset his stomach even more.
 
As far as I can recall, having heliobacter as a baby set him up for
digestive troubles in the future where he just couldn't eat.  Again, if
I remember right it was similar to irritable bowel symptom that people
get.
 
I know this is vague and I am sorry.  See if you can find the article and
let us know what your vet says.
 
anne in chicago
[Posted in FML issue 4668]