This may have been dealt with: but humor me, please. Winston
vomitted two nights in a row. We've been watching him pretty closely,
and the vomitting seems to have abated: but he's got really nasty
diarrhea. Kind of greenish and slimy, and stinky. With mucous around
the edges, which he's had for about four days. It's pretty frequent: he
doesn't even bother looking for a magazine anymore.
We took him to the vet, who had him all day, and she took x-rays
and managed to determine that there isn't anything hard obstructing his
intestines. Options seem to be that Winston has (a) some kind of
bacterial growth; (b) some kind of
blockage, which might be something soft (cotton or a hairball, which
wouldn't show well on an x-ray); (c) nonspecific intestinal problem
(kind of vet-language for, "He's got diarrhea," I think). Anyway, the
specifics are: a ferret of indeterminate age (he was a stray: let's guess
around four) with bad diarrhea, entire loss of appetite (except for
nutrical and linatone, which we have limited), and extreme lethargy. Any
ideas? Especially about getting him to eat? I lost my duck soup recipe
in the last Hard Disk Purge, and would like another copy. Please rally
'round, those of you who know about this kind of thing: we're looking at
exploratory surgery if we can't figure this thing out, and we really
can't afford it. Many thanks to all, and may all your wool socks turn up
someday.
[Posted in FML issue 0989]
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