>Re: Bladder situation vet kinda stumped..

Did the vet save any of the sludge to test?

If not, then take the urine pH and also check for infection.

Be sure to measure the specific gravity to see how well he is
concentrating urine in case he took any kidney damage.

Some ferrets get infections secondary to adrenal disease and certainly
males with adrenal disease get prostate disease and need meds.

If surgery is not possible here is a related past post and part of it
goes into how to treat:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL2144
BEGIN QUOTATION
   Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 00:52:13 EDT
   To: [log in to unmask]
   Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Adrenal,.prostate,urination problems
Sounds like Bear had a giant bladder if he had 100 mls of urine.
A normal bladder will have <10 to 12 mls of urine in it. The next
question is does he have an enlarged prostate, or a prostatic cyst,
or a prostatic abscess? Can your vet palpate anything besides the
giant bladder? As for treatment: Lupron depot every 4 weeks, melatonin
(implant or daily tablets/liquid), Propecia, and an antibiotic such as
Baytril, Zeniquin, or TMPS for 6-8 weeks. It would be a good thing to
drain his bladder frequently (2 to 3 times a week) to prevent the
bladder from being stretched so much
Hope that helps,
Jerry Murray, DVM
END QUOTATION

If the urine is alkaline then struvite uroliths (stones) are possible.
Those ferrets need less plant matter in the diet and a urine acidifier.

If the urine is acidic then cystine stones are possible. These ferrets
need to be on a reduced protein diet no higher than 35% protein to
reduce the critical C.O.L.A. grouping of amino acids which can cause
the precipitation of cystine. Those amino acids are Cystine, Ornithine,
Lysine, and Arginine. On a rare basis they need medical approaches,
too, and those are discussed in past posts in the FHL
Archives:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/

Calcium Oxalate stones are also among the types more often seen and
if ferrets are like humans then oxalate is the problem, not calcium.
If I recall right infection also can cause these.

There are more rare types, too.

If a ferret can not fully empty the bladder, for example if there is
a type of abnormality called a bladder diverticulum left from the
fetal tube to the outside not having disappeared completely so a
punch remains those, too, will allow minerals to precipitate out.

Bailey may be having the remaining adrenal kick up (probably most
likely given his history and given relative occurrence) , or may be
forming stones, or have retained ones that are just coming out now,
or some combo. Some people who have taken in ferrets from that recent
very large rescue have found that they had struvite stones or sludge
that had been retained for a while.

Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 6002]