To Jim Storm:
 
        Anytime that a ferret has to be hospitalized for eating rubber or
foreign material - that's a good time to open the abdomen up and take a look.
 Chances are there is still some more rubber in there.  The black bowel
movements attest to intestinal bleeding, and the white color that you see in
the nose and feet mean there is significant blood loss.
 
        Very often I see veterinarians take radiographs and say there is
nothing in there. The problem is, rubber and plastic don't show up on routine
radiographs, and it is only when there is severe total obstruction does the
normal outline of the intestine change.  You can have a small piece, or several
forming a partial obstruction, or even working it's way THROUGH the wall of the
intestine, and you won't know it.
 
        Best bet when you know that your ferret has eaten something and is
passing bloody stool - go in and take it out.  If not, you may end up with a
very sick, or even dead, ferret.
 
 
 
--
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Department of Veterinary Pathology
[log in to unmask]               Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
[log in to unmask]             Washington, D.C.  20306-6000
(202) 782-2600/2602
[Posted in FML issue 1201]