Hello all,
 
I have two altered ferrets who are almost two years old, one male, one
female.  Around the middle of July or a little later my girl, Cleo started
getting diarrhea.  At first it was liquidy but, then it got a little better
and was tan and wetter than usual with the seed looking things in it.  Of
course ferrets can get diarrhea for many reasons.  However, there was no
change in food or any stressful situations.  I had gone to a ferret show in
New Jersey a week before she got sick.  However, when I came home I made
sure to change my clothes and wash up before touching the ferrets and I put
the clothes in a plastic bag until I washed them.  I also didn't touch any
ferrets at the show to start with.
 
I brought her to the vet after having her stool test come up with nothing.
We started her on antibiotics.  After a week she was not any better so she
went back for a blood test.  The blood test showed an elevated white blood
cell count.  The vet said this indicates and infection and had us start her
on Amoxicillin, Metro(something), and Pepto twice a day.  After several
days Cleo's stools got worse, now she was doing green and yellowish ones
(they had stayed like the ones I described earlier).  The vet suggested
taking her off the meds because she believes it was stressing her enough
to make her worse.  After a few days the green went away.
 
Then Ramsey (my male) got the same thing.  They both still have the same
thing going on with no change.  They act completely normal.  The only thing
unusual is the stools.
 
My vet said that she has another client who's ferret has a similar thing
and they went through all the antibiotics and did exploratory surgery which
showed an inflammatory bowel condition, but the Prednosolne(I never spell
that right) didn't help at all.  My vet is consulting other ferret vets in
the area to see if they have seen anything like this.
 
It has been such a long time since this started with no changes.  Has
anyone seen anything like this before?  And if so, where?
 
(I am in Mass by the way)
 
Melinda
[Posted in FML issue 2417]