We have a six year old neutered (but not descented) female ferret named
Skitter who has been never been sick since she joined our family at the age
of six months.  Her normal weight is between 1.8 to 1.4 pounds depending
upon the season.  We also have two male ferrets who are considerably larger
than she but she is still the boss.
 
Now the problem.  About twelve days ago we noticed that her stools were
loose but her activity level (i.e. keeping the boys under control) and food
and water intake did not change.  She lost enough weight that we took her to
a vet who knows ferrets (Westland Hospital in Michigan) and they did a stool
sample and a general check up and found no lumps or bumps or bugs or
parasites.  We decided to hold off on the blood work until we saw if the
medicine worked.  They gave us prednisone and what looks and smells like
pepto bismo.
 
We should mention that we have been in the process of moving from MI to PA
over the last three weeks.
 
We have been giving her the medicine and she is still eating and drinking
(we have also been giving her pedialyte to prevent dehydration) but she has
lost way too much weight.  It hurts us--not her--to pick her up and feel how
so very thin she is.  We have an appointment with a vet who claims she has
worked with ferrets and more importantly is not afraid too yell for help
when stumped (those were her words).  Once she looks at Skitter's records
(we brought a copy of the MI file with us) we will decide together what
to do.
 
What I would like to know is this: Can anyone give us any ideas as to what
kind of things we should be looking for?  There is absolutely no hair loss.
In fact her coat is beautiful.  There has been no vomitting whatsoever.  We
had a ferret who had to have something removed from his stomach surgically
so we know what the symptoms are--at least for that ferret.
 
What questions would you ask the vet?  We really hate to bring any animal to
a vet who does not have a baseline to go by but we really have no other
options.
 
Thanks for any help.
 
Lorraine and Gerry
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[Posted in FML issue 2377]