Hi everyone! I am Idgie's previous owner (first mom), and would like to
give a little bit of her history to help her diagnosis.  My good friend
Lindly Garner (Hi Luf!) was good enough to adopt Idgie when I felt that my
situation was no longer condusive to my fuzzies happiness (ie.  she was
spending a lot of time in her cage, alone).  Oddly enough, the FML was
what crystalized my decision. Since the ferret lifespan is 7-10 years old,
and Idgie (and Lisa, Idgie's new playmate) are both 3.5 years old, I
wanted to her to be truly happy (like the fuzzies I read about on the
list) for the rest of her days..and knew that Lindy and Lisa-da-weazel
could provide that happiness. Provided that Idg and Lisa got along, which
they do.  Idg has been in Montana for nearly a month.
 
Anyway...About a year and a half ago, Idgie almost died.  The vet (who is
a great vet, but doesn't work with ferrets much) diagnosed a duodenal
ulcer.  Her symptoms were:  grinding teeth, tarry stools, lethargy, weight
loss, loss of appetite.  A few days before I realized that she was sick,
she got hold of a Worthers candy (not sure of real name) and ate the whole
thing before I noticed what she was up to!  Nothing left but the
wrapper... Now, I thought that this was what caused her to get sick, but
the vet assured me that was not possible..that it was stress (undefined).
THe only stress that I could think of that she might have been going
through, was that I had recently started taking her outside (she was about
2 years old then, and that was her first experience with the great
outdoors). She hated it, and was always running for the nearest cover, so
I soon gave up on that little experiment.
 
She stayed at the vets for several days, on an IV..and finally, he told me
that she was going to die if I could not get her to eat.  I took her home
and force fed her every hour (science diet anorexic cat food mixed with
water, didn't know about duck soup) and gave her pepto bismal and
anti-biotics).  This went on for 2 days, and finally she started eating
again (only if she was propped on my shoulder like a baby and licked the
food from the syringe :-).  She gained her weight back and started eating
on her own, and I have never seen the tooth grinding and tarry stools
since then... However, her stools were never really the same either..
Could there be impaired intestinal functioning causing incomplete
digestion of her food, and hence, the grainy stools? (Oh, and does anyone
know if the candy could have caused the original problem, I would like to
know).  Thanks...
 
Mia Revels (Hi Idgie and Lindy!!)
   and the cats:
   Jade-birdy (Where is that little fuzzy thing that used to torment me?)
   Lufa (I kind of miss her!)
   Stony (Huh?)
[Posted in FML issue 1247]