To Shawn and Snowflake:
>I am a regular reader of the Ferret Digest and keep seeing your name
>appearing in it, I have a question for you because I am concerned about
>my ferret. (Yes, I'll be posting this to the digest as well...) I got
>my ferret about 3 weeks ago, she's an Albino Spayed Female. She is
>about 5 months old. The problem started about 4 days ago... she did not
>go to the bathroom one day at all, I thought maybe I just hadn't seen her
>go in her usual spot, so I waited till the next day, .. still nothing...
>got worried, so I asked a friend who had a ferret and she recommended
>giving her warm milk and putting vegetable oil on her food for a few days..
>well, it worked, and she started going to the bathroom again... only
.now it's a kind of lightish greenish/yellowish/brownish color... could
>this be the sign of a larger problem? She is having her distemper
>and rabies shot next week. I had been feeding her some bologna off
>and one the past week before this problem started, as well as Purina
>kitten chow w/ 34% protein (the pet store recommended this.)
Shawn - the warm milk and vegetable oil are enough to change the color
and consistency of the stool. While this COULD be the sign of a larger problem,
it most likely isn't. There's isn't any sign of blood, tarry stools, painful
defectaion, abdominal pain, gridning teeth, etc. You may find that she has gone
to the bathroom somewhere else (in a week or two.) I would stop the baloney,
especially since she is having some bathroom difficulties.
While you're at the vet - get a tube of Laxatone or Petromalt. This is
good for when the GI tract stops moving things through, or when you think she
may have eaten something she shouldn't. It's extremely safe and ferrets like
it. 1 inch once or twice a day. It's a lot better than milk or vegetable oil.
Bruce Williams, DVM Department of Veterinary Pathology
[log in to unmask] Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
(202) 782-2600/2602 Washington, D.C. 20306-6000
[Posted in FML issue 1042]
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