At the time Toby died (from what turned out to be the equivalent of
Feline Leukovirus) Nicia stopped eating altogether and seemed to be
vomiting and gagging a lot.  She appeared to be vomiting mucous rather
than food, and our vet's examination seemed to indicate an upper-throat
infection (her tonsils were red and enlarged).  There weren't any
specific and definative things wrong with her blood.  The FeLV test showed
negative (but it's not known to mean anything with ferrets anyways).
She was put on Deoxycycline for almost a whole week in an attempt to
knock out what appeared to be a throat infection that caused mucous
secretion and upset stomach.  She was passing black and tarry stools (which
often indicates liver, bile duct or intestinal problems).  She did not
show any of the typical symptoms of liver damage (she was bright and
more energetic than usual even though she was skin and bones - her
weight dropped from about 750-800 gms to 520 grams).  After about a week
in which her appetite didn't improve (she seemed hungry, but would only
take a teaspoon of well watered C/D or so per day) the vet suggested
that we stop the antibiotic.
 
A day later: talk about vacuum cleaner!  The only problem she had was
that her tongue wasn't long enough to reach the food behind her ears!
She's back up to about 600-650 gms (which is approximately her ideal
weight) and seems perfectly fine - even more energetic than usual.
Stool and blood tests are "normal"...  Our vet says that ferrets don't usually
show such obvious blood chemistry responses to infections as other
animals (eg: with birds, the white cell counts go thru the roof for just
about any type of infection, but with ferrets they don't change much).
 
Anyways, the general consensus seems to be that she did have some sort
of infection that caused the poor appetite, gagging and tarry stools which
the antibiotic did manage to control, but the antibiotic itself was
causing a severe stomach upset.  Once we took her off it everything picked up.
FAST!  So, if your ferret ever gets into a similar situation w.r.t.
appetite and an antibiotic is administered but doesn't seem to improve
appetite after a week or so, discontinuing the antibiotic may end the
problem.  Our vet indicates that Deoxycycline is definately known to
sometimes cause stomach upset in humans and some animals.  So, in this
situation, don't forget the possibility of the antibiotic's side-effects
and consult with your vet.
 
[Lest anyone be scared off ferrets because of our trials and tribulations
with our ferrets, please note that Nicia was obtained indirectly thru
the pound after running wild for some time and most of her problems
are directly or indirectly due to that fact.  Including the large foreign
body found in her abdomen by exploratory surgery (details in previous
issues) and the fact that she is undersized due to malnourishment during
that time.  In Toby's case, it simply appears that the FeLV was caught
at the breeder - and all literature that I've read, and our vet says,
that FeLV is *very* rare in ferrets.  Mocha, and the other ferrets we've
known have never had any problems whatsoever.]
                                                                          
[Posted in FML 0020]