Hi.  Please, please help if you can... I've been treating my great fur kid
Tarzan for anorexia, weight loss, odd stools, and vomiting with pawing at
mouth.  You're probably thinking blockage, but please read on.
 
Tarzan is three and was a very strapping fuzzy... he's still showing a lot
of energy, at times seeming to get a lot better.  In April Tarzee began
losing his winter weight, but kept losing.  Sometime in May I found some
vomit in the house of seven fuzzies.  I grew worried and soon realized
Tarzan was five ounces under his lowest spring weight.  He was still
jetting about and looked healthy, but I knew something was wrong.  A fecal
sample revealed a lot of giardia (my vet uses a stain in which only the
centers of only the giardia protozoa turn green, so she was sure).  Our
ferrets go outside regularly so he'd probably managed to get in some
standing water somewhere - even more careful now.  In any case, we treated
him with seven days flagyl, then a fecal showed the giardia at half less.
 
Tarzan hated the nutrical-laced flagyl and began vomiting more.  We switched
to fendbendazole (a horse wormer found to be very effective against giardia)
and another fecal after five more days showed only a couple giardia.  He had
two more days of fendbendazole and will be retested for giardia in a week.
During this time he received some carafate (when his tummy was empty and
nothing for an hou, and some bene-bac gel, which is like concentrated
yoghurt and restores the natural bacteria in the tummy.
 
For some time he has had shiny, green to dark stools, sometimes runny little
blops, sometimes better formed, but never much diarrhea, though they're
sometimes loose and show bubbles.  Lately a couple have been sort of
globular, as if woven from smallish separate pieces.  I've been giving him
more Laxatone lately and he's always gotten ferretvite, which could account
for the shininess.  Most of our fuzzies have light, fluffy stools after
eating turkey soup, which Tarzee's been getting a lot of.
 
He continued once a day or every other day one vomiting and pawing at mouth
fit, so a week and three days ago I had him tested for a blockage, full
x-rays as a baseline, a barium drink, then three x-rays over the course of
a couple hours or so.  A lot of poop came out along with the barium (making
me think he was stopped up; and carafate, which he'd been getting, can
cause constipation, or the sleuce of manure could support the obstruction
theory).  The x-rays clearly showed some gas, including one large bubble in
the tummy (ulcers can also cause gas my vet said).  The barium revealed
something odd looking in the tummy, but the barium went all the way through
at a normal pace and didn't get hung up anywhere or form around anything
like a blockage.  My vet also noticed something a little odd about how the
barium moved a little lower down.  But she wasn't sure, so the ferret
radiologist in town looked at the x-ray series, and he said there was
absolutely no sign of blockage.  During his latest vomiting bout, ended
during this message, he jumped in the litter box and had a small but
well-formed, poop, and he cried out twice.  I examined the poop and found
nothing estraordinary.  It was darker green and smaller than normal though.
 
Since the giardia could have been exacerbated by an obstruction (but none
was found), or could have exacerbated helicobactor, causing ulcers, we
began treating for ulcers and also the common helicobactor.  Tarzee gets
carafate. .5 ml 2x/day one hour before he eats, then after or before
meals, amoxi .25 ml 2x day, with pepto bismal .5-.7 ml 2x/day, and Biaxin
in evening 1ml 1x/day.  This has been going on five days.  He also gets the
bene-bac gel once a day.  He's getting a bland turkey soup which we've been
force feeding lately (only increased the vomiting so will cut back or give
less).  He's barely holding his weight at 2 lb.  8-9 ounces; his lowest
normal spring/summer weight is 3 lb.  1 ounce.  The vomiting happens every
other day or once a day, usually one long fit (fifteen minutes which is
awful to watch).  I have occasionally found him eating hard food and
drinking water, such as after his latest carafate dose with sub-q fluids;
eating will interrupt the carafate's coating action, but I'm not going to
stop an anorexic fuzzy from eating.  We've started moderate sub-q fluids,
just in case, though he doesn't seem dehydrated.  For the past couple weeks,
at night we've interrupted vomiting fits to inject Turbutal, a narcotic,
which kills pain; I've found that an hour and a half later he can eat and be
medicated.  We've given maybe seven of these shot, certainly no solution.
 
In short, we cleared up the giardia, tested for a blockage, and began
treatment for ulcers/helicobactor.  If it weren't for confirmed giardia
first off, I'd have thought blockage immediately.  None of our other fuzzies
are ill, by the way, and this fuzzy is not nervous or stressed, and hasn't
been.  My vet has said surgery is a bad thing to do if an ulcer is present,
which scares me.
 
Have I treated enough for an ulcer?  Should I proceed to surgery for an
obstruction, which can be missed even with barium x-rays (i.e. hairball in
tummy) or, as the radiologist said, other things could be looked for, such
as proliferative bowel disorder or a tumor... In any case, I'm going to high
dose Laxatone & calling vet about surgery.
 
This is breaking my heart.  All fuzzies are great, but those who know Tarzee
know how special he is to me.  Please help if you can.  I don't want to lose
him.
 
With many tears of worry...  Lynn
 
P.S The 17-year old cat just vomited.  He's also just begun treatment for a
UTI.  (Those who know me know I keep things quite clean, so they're not all
dying of bacteria).  Wally (inoperable adrenal fuzzy doing well on Lysodren)
is developing insulinoma and still very furry Gadzook with UT problems is
recently diagnosed adrenal (way high estradial of 348!).
 
Should I kill mayself now or later? ;)  Naw... then who would take care of
the fur kids?!  Keeping a sense of humor... L.
[Posted in FML issue 2340]