To Stacy Tillberg:
 
>Does anyone know about trying to poop frequently or if I should try to find
>some kind of food supplement for Maggie to gain some weight?
 
Trying to poop frequently is a fairly non-specific sign and may be the
result of either GI or urinary problem.  However, the passage of small
amounts of mucus helps us to narrow down the problem to the GI tract.
 
I think that I would have to consider a number of diseases at this time -
ECE (younger ferrets may show minimal clinical signs other than diarrhea),
intestinal obstruction - (ferrets strain a lot when trying to pass a foreign
object - sometimes it comes out, sometimes it doesn't), proliferative
colitis (usually see some red blood in the stool), intestinal parasites like
coccidiosis, or very rarely, a tumor involving the rectum.  There are
probably even some less common conditions.
 
I would have your vet take a good close look at her this week at vaccination
time, and do a fecal.  That's always a good place to start....
 
Best regards,
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
Dept. of Veterinary Pathology               [log in to unmask]
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1717]