On Thu, 19 Feb 1998 Gary Holowicki wrote to the FML:
 
>. . . you want to give him something like flax
>seed oil, or even cooking oil to help pass the potential blockage!!
 
So, what's the poop (pun intended) on vegetable oil as a laxative?
I've heard and read that:
 
-- vegetable oils do have a laxative effect
 
-- vegetable oils are absorbed by the digestive tract before they can have a
laxative effect
 
-- vegetable oils have some laxative effect, but you have to give the ferret
so much to compensate for the absorption by the digestive tract that you
risk making the ferret sick from too much oil or from concentration of
fat-soluble vitamins
 
-- vegetable oils help to "lubricate" foreign bodies in the stomach so that
they pass more easily to the intestines, although once the oil hits the
intestines, it is then absorbed
 
-- vegetable oils soften the stools so that they pass more easily (and
that's the mechanism of effect for sweeping out the system), but would have
little effect on the foreign bodies (hair, cloth, styrofoam) themselves.
 
Obviously, there's a lot of discordance in the information stream on this.
Does anyone have a definitive answer or citation to back any of the above
statements?
 
Seems to me that petrolatum (aka Vaseline, Petromalt, hairball remedy),
which passes through the system pretty much unchanged, should be more
reliable and safer than vegetable oils.  Even though it's a byproduct of oil
refining, it's a stable and nonvolatile substance that is not absorbed by
the digestive tract.  And it has a longer shelf life than vegetable
oils--safer in that it doesn't go rancid so quickly.
 
So my second question is, why would one NOT use petrolatum for blockage
prevention?
 
Thanks,
-- Lee
[Posted in FML issue 2223]