I had a somewhat frightening experience with Scooter this week that I
wanted to pass on in case anybody can shed any light on it.
 
Wednesday night, I went out with my roommate to one of the local bars.  We
came home around 2 and I noticed Scooter was heaving and gagging quite a
bit, like he had to throw something up.  I tried to help by rubbing under
his throat, but whatever was bothering him either could not or would not
come up, and all I managed to do was make it worse.  He was running around
intermittently and heaving HARD like he was in great distress for awhile,
then he seemed to calm down and didn't heave so much, although he
continued to do it intermittently.
 
I finally went to sleep at 4 AM; first thing in the morning we went to the
vet.  He gagged once hard and stopped heaving right after I got off the
phone to tell them we were coming and didn't start again.  The vet found
something in his intestine that could have been a blockage or could have
been just a bunch of stool--she wasn't sure.  I took him home and he
immediately produced the largest stool I have ever seen.  He hasn't shown
any other symptoms since then--the occasional gag, but that's par for the
course with him.  I keep him on occasional Petromalt to help him pass any
hair that might be caught in his throat.
 
He continues to eat and poop normally, 24 hours later, so I'm not really
worried about a blockage.  I am puzzled, however.  I'm also a little
worried, since he does breathe a little heavily sometimes and this reminds
me of the recent post about the little guy with congenital cardiomyopathy.
 Can Dr. Williams and/or any ferret owners with similar experiences comment?
 
Chris and
Scooter the Impatient Patient
Bellingham, WA
 
        I am Ferret of Borg
                Bitter Apple is Irrelevant
                        Litterboxes are Irrelevant
                                Your Socks will be Assimilated
 
[Posted in FML issue 0932]