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From:
Sukie Crandall <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 3 Feb 2006 12:30:29 -0500
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I am so glad to see Byran back!  Welcome back!  I am sorry that it is
due to Liam being ill.
 
Sorry this took a while.  Life has been absolutely crazy here.
Hopefully, this will be clear enough; I have a raging allergy headache.
 
You will find more in the FHL Archives.  I have been practically peeling
down my brain trying to recall the name of a ferret who turned out to
have a huge number of food intolerances and EGE, but this morning I
remembered a key word to help me find it, and the name is this: Rinky
Dink.  You will find info in the FHL Archives (addy in my signature) on
his case.
 
The cause of persistent diarrhea is one of the hardest things to pin
down.  Diarrhea can be caused by illness, parasites, sometimes
insulinoma, food intolerances, EE also termed EGE (Eosinophylic
Gastroenteritis, or Eosinophylic Enteritis), colitis, and even the
catch-all IBD.  Some with the sorts of markings associated with neural
crest genetic variants can have genetic problems involved.  Some have
multiple things at once.
 
For IBD I think that the most intense thing we went through with Sherman
will include a number of meds that are often used with IBD, in case some
of those may be useful:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=SG8983
 
Remember that the list is for severe, long term IBD with secondary
infection so it is extreme and he was gradually weaned off many of the
meds.  For him Imuran was a very helpful approach.  He also had a
special diet tried but that didn't help him.  It did help another ferret,
Scooter, who had IBD on top of a genetic GI malformation and who turned
out to to have an intolerance to all poultry (but zd could be eaten
because the prteins were broken down enough to be safe).  Scooter also
responded well to Imuran for a while but then one of his treating vets
didn't want to give it longer term.  For both Prednisolone (like
Pediapred) had to be given instead of Prednisone because that way the
liver processing step was skipped.
 
If it is IBD, then what helps may change over time.  That often happens
with bad cases.  We found that sometimes steroids and an antibiotic
would be helpful, but had to keep changing the actual meds.
 
Some people who have ferrets with milder cases find that adding dietary
fiber helps a lot.  For more serious cases it can sometimes give a
temporary reprieve which can help the meds and diet changes work a bit
better, so can be useful that way.  What is often used for this is
unsweetened pumpkin puree such as the baking section of your grocery
store will have.
 
What in the world is the shelter's Laxatone regime?  What did your
treating vet say about it?
 
Too soothe a stomach is best to use the manufaturer's liquid prep of
Carafate.  The alternatives feel too chalky going down.
 
If it may have help it could pay to have a longer trial of zd because
a chronically inflamed intestine can take a very long time to go down.
 
The single worst mistake we made with one with IBD was we tried adding
a little heavy cream to his diet when we needed to regain some weight.
He personally had a major intolerance and it almost killed him.
 
BTW, for those who are new in the last few years.  Bryan is the person
who got all the authors' and artists' permissions and put together the
Ferret Poem Book which has artwork, stories, song lyrics, and poems.
Now that he is back so is a site with them:
http://www.dookingweaselforge.com/
I am going to look around in the site, knowing that it will be a
pleasure.
 
-- Sukie (not a vet)
Ferret Health List co-moderator
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives fan
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
replacing
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
International Ferret Congress advisor
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5143]

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