It has been a long time since I've written, but here goes a nice long
posting.
 
PROBLEM: For as long as we have had Liam, he has had diarrhea.  It is
light brown in color and of the consistance of cooked and pureed chicken.
Sometimes it has a very foul odor, and very rarely some extra mucous.  We
have been trying various things with two different vets, but to little
avail so far.  I was hoping to collect any more ideas or see if anyone
had encountered something similar.
 
HISTORY: A little over a year ago, we adopted Liam from a shelter.  He
was thin (under 2 lbs) and quiet.  We know at the shelter he had some
digestive problems that the shelter operator believed may be related to
shelter life.  After bringing him home we finished the laxatone regime
that the operator recommended and gave him several weeks to settle down
and get comfortable.  His weight quickly climbed to 2.8 lbs and then
dropped to a comfortable 2.3 lbs which suits his frame nicely.
 
Our first attempt was sulcrafate twice a day to settle his stomach.
Firstly it provoked a violent gag reaction with Liam no matter how I
disguised it, secondly it didn't work after two or three weeks.
 
We had his blood and feces tested for several possible parasites
and viruses.  All of his test have come back good, and there is no
indications of any ulceration.  His blood sugar has been tested a
few times and has ranged between normal and the lower end of normal.
 
Our most recent tests have been diet changes which take awhile for each
test.  We had been feeding everyone Totally Ferret and Bob Church Chicken
gravy.  Thinking of a possible allergy, we stopped the Bob Church and
switched Liam to Hill's Science Diet ZD (Food for allergic cats) for 6
weeks with no treats or other supplements.  This may have helped a bit,
but we still had frequent diarrhea.  I also worried about it being a
complete diet.  We have also tried Mazuri ferret food, which may have a
little worse output than the Totally Ferret.  Fortunately our three
ferrets are willing to eat any food we give them.
 
We have kept him on the different foods for 4 to 6 weeks each to
stabilize, but haven't been able to say that one is definitely better
than another.  The ZD MAY have helped a some, but is very hard to say
since the diarrea intensity does fluctuate by itself.  My best guess is
that there is something we have missed, and some richer diets may
aggravate the problem, or at least make it more visible.
 
We are also been very careful about cleaning products in their rooms.
 
One of our next possibilities will a small dose of prednisolone.
 
Any ideas?
 
Bryan Coffey
www.dookingweaselforge.com
[Posted in FML issue 5140]