>Ok, I'm on alert for green poop, and black tarry poop, and...... I have
>actually been a poop observer for some time now (-:  Despite the fact that
>I've had ferrets for 1 1/2 years now (still a relatively newcomer) I get
>very nervous about abnormal stools.  I don't feel 100% in my diagnosis of
>normal.
 
>My ferrets stools seem to vary in width, color, and consistency.  Can't
>believe I'm asking for this but, does anyone know of a good reference to
>check out stools?  I want to be able to clearly identify abnormal stools
>so that I can be alert of any symptoms of illness.  Maybe there is a good
>book or stool chart that I can look into.
 
Dear Risa:
 
Please - let's not make more out of poop than it really is.  The shape and
consistency of poop in ferrets is so variable - it varies even in normal
ferrets from day to day.  We try not to be "stool-gazers" - just monitor
overall trends.  Don't get worked up over the occasional odd stool -look
for perfection elsewhere than in the litterbox.
 
Your poop manual would be a very thin book, so let's write it.
 
Green poop - a very non-specific sign - it just means that food is moving
through too fast.  The normal brown color seen in feces is the endproduct
of breakdown of old red blood cells.  The pigment does through a green
stage called biliverdin, before it becomes brown (called stercobilin).  So
if it is going through at an accelerated rate, it never breaks all the way
down, and has a green color to it.
 
But anything that accelerates passage of food or causes diarrhea can result
in green color - ECE, rapid food changes, lymphoma, just about anything.
 
Black tarry poop - Very suggestive of gastricu bleeding and usually
associated with gastric ulcers.  You have to have significant bleeding in
the stomach for the feces to turn black.  The black color is the result
of digestion of blood, which usually only occurs in the stomach.
 
Bloody poop - If you see frank blood in the poop - it is usually either
from the large bowel or rectum ( if seen in small amounts) - of if there
is a lot of blood, it could come from the entire length of the GI tract.
Massive hemorrhage is seen either from severe gastric bleeds or shock in
ferrets, and as one might imagine, is a really bad sign.
 
Birdseed poop - Generally a sign of maldigestion or malabsorption.  Also
non-specific, it can be seen with any disease that severely affects the
small intestine.  Most commonly seen with ECE, the individual seeds are
usually undigested fat and starch complexes.  Whe you see this, you should
consider removing a ferret from kiblle and going to a bland, easily
digested supplement for a while.
 
Pencil-lead thin stools - Think partial obstruction - usually a foreign
body.
 
That's about it in my lexicon.  Not much of a book.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
[Posted in FML issue 3196]