Funny how when you really need an on-line resource, you can't even log on...
I had a small medical crisis this weekend with Reverend Maynard.  I woke up
on Saturday and he was pretty lethargic and had to work really hard at it to
go to the bathroom.  His stool was very dark in color and mucousy.  It
seemed greenish-tinted, so I thought maybe he'd gotten ECE from the new kit,
Cosette.  After much panic, I got a hold of someone I trusted (the vet I've
been going to lately wasn't working on Saturday) and she said that it
sounded more like an intestinal blockage.  I wanted to look up the symptoms
of some of these illnesses, but couldn't get past all the busy signals on
the server.  (sigh)
 
I gave Maynard pedialyte, and he didn't want it, which was funny considering
just over a month ago he was addicted to the stuff.  But I force-fed him for
about 24 hours and then he seemed to get better.  His stools looked better
and his energy level was slightly higher.  (Please don't flame me for
this....-->) Because my college classes end before Thanksgiving, all my
important projects are due this week and I didn't have enough time to give
to school and Maynard and I knew if I had to feed him around the clock I
would fail my classes, so my mom offered to come and pick him up and take
care of him this week (she's off work and loves Mayn Mayn anyway).  He was
seeming much more like his old self when she arrived.
 
He's had these problems off and on for a while, and I've taken him to
several different vets who take x-rays or blood or something, pronounce it a
hairball, charge me a small fortune, and then tell me to give him laxatone
for a while.  He gets better for a while and then it happens again.  My mom
wants to keep Maynard in San Antonio with her ferrets...she thinks that it
has to do with Houston or my apartment (since he never seems to be sick
there).  My apartment has new carpet and it's sort of cheap and it sheds a
lot...I think he may be ingesting carpet fibers and maybe accumulating some
kind of blockage.  Is there a reliable way to check for this type of thing
if laxatone doesn't seem to do the trick and it doesn't show up on x-rays?
I hate to think of the distress this might be causing his system.  Any
advice, suggestions from people who've seen this?  He's had vomiting spells
in the past, but this weekend he didn't vomit.  None of the other ferrets
show any symptoms of being sick, so I assume it isn't a virus or contagious
disease.  Please, any advice would be appreciated.  My mom has to take one
of her ferts in for a distemper vacs, so she's going to take the Reverend to
our reliable vet in San Antonio, but I would like to know what tests might
be most useful so we don't overdo it (in the past few months I've spent
about $400 on these diagoses).
 
Thanks and dooks
                                   --->Kelly
 |\__\           /__/|          Head of Animal Optometry
 |  o o         o o  |          "Damn you, Let the Rabbits wear glasses"
/    =p=     =q=   \          University of Houston
     |              |
Reverend Maynard: "I'm not looking at you."  Edie: "Snore, squeak."
** "A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense
not to himself." **
      (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead)
[Posted in FML issue 1750]