Dear Marie
 
>Boris has come up with a mysterious illness for the second time in about
>a year.
>
>Antiobiotics seem to knock it out.  This time I noticed that when drinking,
>after his squirt of amoxi, after eating/swallowing he would shake his head
>around and repeatedly do that peanut butter thing with his mouth.  Now I
>have wondered if Boris doesn't have chronic tummy/intestinal problems of
>some kind.  He has a tendency to go hungry for as long as he can and then
>dive into food-but only till he staves off starvation.  He's not a rack of
>bones but I'm always at least somewhat concerned.  He's been to the vets a
>bizzillion times, blood work is ok, urine is ok, x-rays are always well....
>looks ok but what the hell, half the time they wouldn't show a problem
>anyway.
>
>My suspicion that I would at least like to have a go at is some sort of
>on again off again chronic ulcer - what's the latest and greatest in
>antiobiotic treatment?...
 
Boy, this sure does sound like a gastric ulcer to me as well.  The lip
smacking can be associated with that,or with oral ulcers (which nauseated
ferrets get after they rake their mouths with their paws).  When ferrets
with gastric ulcers eat - or even attempt to eat in some cases - the normal
acid production in theri stomach gets into the ulcers and causes pain and
food refusal.  Some ferrets then avoid food, which may be the case here.
And gastric ulcers don't show up on X-rays, and bloodwork isn't very
helpful - although low PCV and mild hypoalbuminemia may occasionally be
seen.  A less common finding that can also be seen is either an elevated
WBC count and intermittent fever - remember that a hole in the stomach
lining allows substances in the stomach, including bacteria and their
products to bypass the protective stomach lining and get into the inner
aspects of the stomach, and in some cases, directly into the bloodstream
 
You mention antibiotic treatment for ulcers - this is a common
misconception.  While we often treat ferrets who have ulcers for concurrent
Helicobacter infection, the real treatment for an ulcer is Carafate at 75
mg/lb given 10 minutes prior to meals, and frequent small meals of a bland
diet.  First we patch the holes with the Sucralfate to take the edge off
the pain, then we try to get a highly digestible diet in which will be
gone quickly.  And try to identify and alleviate sources of stress.
 
Helico treatments another time - I'm bumping up against the 126 line limit
on this one.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3202]