In yesterday's FML, Gina Hart wrote:
>An intestinal blockage should be visible either via x-ray or by a barium
>study.
 
I just wanted to add from my own experience that this is not always the
case-- a couple years ago, Amelia had a very serious blockage (her intestine
was completely stoppered up), and there was absolutely no sign of it on her
x-rays, not even as gas bubbles.  We didn't do a barium x-ray, but my vet
felt that the blockage was unlikely to show up even with barium.  Moral of
the story being, if it looks like a blockage from all the symptoms and
there's nothing on the x-ray, there may still be something in there.
Exploratory surgery could save your ferret's life in this case, as it did
Amelia's.  Hopefully, we can all be vigilant enough to prevent the little
monsters from eating stuff they shouldn't, but sometimes they find ways of
getting into trouble, as we all know!
 
Regina
 
--
plz send all replies to [log in to unmask], regardless of where this
message appears to have originated...
[Posted in FML issue 2323]