First off, thanks to everyone who sent me messages about resuscitating
Stimpy, who had stopped eating and drinking after a bout of acute diarrhea
last Tues.  I received lots of very helpful advice, much of which
corroborated what I had already done for him, which made me feel better that
I had been taking the right steps.
    Following the details in my previous post, I had taken Stimpy to the vet
on Saturday for an x-ray to rule out an obstruction or foreign body.  By
this time he was lethargic although still curious and aware.  Two
radiographs revealed no obvious blockage.  The vet elected not to give him a
barium swallow because he'd had trouble keeping things down and had vomited
on previous meds.  The rest of the day I was only able to get a few grams of
baby food (Gerber's turkey rice, warmed, on my finger) and water.  He
refused all solid food, even a piece of pear (his favorite) he licked and
walked away from it.  I'd gotten a prescription for sucralfate as well but
wasn't able to get him to accept it.
    Sunday morning I scruffed him in order to try to force-feed him waterand
baby food and when I put him down, the scruffed skin took about 15 seconds
to spring back.  I knew at once he needed emergency rehydration and got him
off to the ER vet clinic where he got 20 ccs of subcutaneous fluid (dextrose
and saline).  He had dropped more than 50 g in weight since the previous
Friday.  While he was there he was force-fed some kaolin (kaopectate) and
trimethoprim- sulfa, and the vets showed me what I was doing wrong in
scruffing him.  (I was being too gentle.) The ER vet prescribed more kaolin
and tmp-smx and I picked up some Pedialyte on the way home.  He got another
25 ccs of that before the end of the night and seemed to perk up after
receiving it.
    By this time, five vets had been consulted and bacterial enteritis
was the most popular contender for the cause with coccidia, clostridia,
campylobacter and helicobacter among the prime suspects, and parvovirus
as another possibility.
    Finally, Monday morning I picked up some vanilla-flavored Ensure
following a suggestion from Pam Grant (thanks Pam) and gave him 10 ccs as
soon as I got back.  He lapped it up with hardly any protest.  Two hours
later, another 10 ccs went down with similar success, and two hours after
that he passed his first stool in two days.  It had a drab-green color to it
with the birdseed-in-jelly consistency I hear is common in recuperating
ferrets.  Half an hour later and he passed an object.  It was the size and
shape of a medium-to-large (not jumbo) cashew, (How could he swallow THAT?)
which goes to the vet tomorrow for an ID.  In addition to more birdseed-type
stool, there was a clear, coffee-colored liquid present that his vet
suggested might be old blood.  He passed three other stools by early evening
and none were bloody or had the coffee-colored liquid.  By 6:30 this evening
he was grabbing his cage door and rattling it to get out.  He explored, he
ran, he bounced, he even did a little war dance.  He seemed so happy to be
feeling well again.  (And so was I!)
    I'm still force-feeding him and the vet recommended keeping him on the
kaolin/sucralfate/amoxicillin for 48 hours.  Now, I'll need to wean him back
to his ferret food, but now that I know he's ok I won't mind hand feeding
him for a little while until he feels up to solids again.  Many thanks for
all of the warm thoughts and sage advice for little Stimpy.  (He was getting
littler by the hour for awhile there!) He seems to be well on the road to
recovery.
--Jeff Johnston ([log in to unmask])
[Posted in FML issue 1312]