I have a health problem with my loved ferret Gigio. He is going to be
4 y/o in a couple of months. Two years ago he started having some
periods of time (from one week to up to a month) where he lacked of
appetite, probably every 4-5 months. Basically no other notorious
symptoms and often in coincidence with his shedding season. But in the
last year there has been some new symptoms and more frequent, now every 3
or so months he seems to have an upset stomach because it starts having
some nausea, one or two nights (it seems that is always at nights) and
finally he has one bad night when he throws up his food a couple of hours
after he has eaten (sometimes sooner), so far it has been always at
nights, then he continues with this nausea sometimes intermittently (one
day yes a couple of days no and again yes) for half a week or so. During
this time he eats but less amount, drinks fine, his poop is normal but
thin and scarce (I guess that is because he eats much less), he does not
cough during the day or night or has diarrhea, but I have the impression
that his belly is a bit hard, I normally feel his intestines and they are
soft or hard depending if he has food inside, but those days I feel his
intestines hard all the time even if he has just went to potty and hasn t
had any recent meal.
Gigio has had only external surgeries (chordoma and mast cell tumor).
All his blood test have been normal, being the most recent done in
September 2002, by then he was already showing this problem, since then
he has had two periods as I described previously.
About his diet, he spend the first 2 years of his life eating IAMS kitten
food but when the formula changed he didn t wanted it anymore and we
changed to Purina ProPlan kitten, when he started having appetite
problems I had to include in his diet baby food (turkey) mixed with his
kibble at least 1 spoon a day. For the past 4 months in an attempt to
give him healthier food I started mixing into the baby food, some chicken
(boiled breast) twice a day together with his grinded kibble for his
lunch around 2PM and dinner around 9 PM and then he has free access to
food (dry kibble) and water for the rest of the night until the morning,
he sleeps in my room with no cage (in the drawers) that is how I know
what is going on with him at nights. Even if he can eat whenever he
wants at nights, he usually waits until 6AM, rarely he eats around 1 or
2 AM and again around 6AM when he starts visiting his dish but he can go
again even after 9AM. What I want to notice is that he eats 3 or 4 times
a day with long spaces of time in between, but this has been his behavior
since very young. During the day he does not wants dry kibble any more
and just will eat his baby food mix.
These days he hasn t been well and I tried for the first time to give him
half centimeter of PeptoBismol at night (because he just present problems
at nights) for 2 days after the day he vomited, he seemed to be doing
fine so I suspended the Pepto one night and then yesterday night I
noticed he has some nausea again (you know how they move their mouths in
discomfort as they salivate) so I gave him some Pepto and he could spend
a good night without further problems. So now I am very concerned about
what this could be.
Could it be one of those mysterious blockages that remains in his stomach
for years moving up and down? (he is a good ferret that does not chews
on cloth or rubber but there is always a chance) Could it be that he has
gastritis or ulcers, perhaps helicobacter? (if so, is it normal to go on
and off every 3 or 4 months?) I have never seen any evidence of blood
(fresh or dry) in his stools. If we go to the vet what has to be
checked?
I don t want to do an exploratory surgery on him because I don t feel
confident with the technical experience of vets in Mexico regarding to
ferrets, most of them still use intravenous anesthetics.
Please if you have ideas or suggestions I will appreciate it very much.
This ferret is my kid, he is the only one, he knows that everybody loves
him. Thank you.
Cathie and Gigio.
[Posted in FML issue 4085]
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