Add these to the possible causes of projectile vomiting already mentioned
(and I am sure there are more):
1. Injury
2. Small intestine malformation
3. Infection (Have seen it with an ascending GI tract infection that
caused sores; specific cause never determined. The individual was
already an IBD patient.)
4. A growth
When a ferret vomits sure that it is actual vomit (Sniff for stomach
acid, for instance.) rather than regurgitated food that could have been
trapped in the esophagus by MegaE.
Forgive me, but I don't recall details. I have been so busy recently
that I actually sometimes can't even get to much of my private mail for
over a day or two, and I have some things that have been waiting longer.
With mouth ulcers always check the kidneys, too. Kidney disease is among
the things can cause mouth ulcers in ferrets, sometimes before it shows
up on blood testing.
For ulcers: ask for the manufacturer's liquid prep of Carafate. Some
vets carry it now, and pretty much all U.S. pharmacies do as an
affordable prescription med.
Shooting domestic animals is illegal in many locations. What is
typically advised is to call animal control or sometimes police. I am
so glad that idiot's neighbor knew animals so much better than she did
so the ferret was saved.
Shooting otters also is illegal in many locations. For which office does
relocation in any state ask that area's state legislator's office to look
it up for you.
BTW, people in the NW are being asked to keep their cats indoors and to
not dispose of cat litter outdoors. Toxoplasmosis rapidly kills otters
through brain infection and the numbers lost quite high now. If memory
serves the most recent study on this is yet again research which the
actress Betty White (who has done a lot to help the advance of veterinary
knowledge) funded fully through the Morris Animal Foundation. Many
thanks to that sweet woman! (I miss the years when Steve and I could do
a lot for MAF, back when Sarah was there...)
The caution may well apply in areas with different otter species. For
example, we live in a little and aging condo in the Ridge and Swamp
ecological zone of N.J. so the area has a lot of wooded places that can
not be built on, allowing wildlife. In our general area we have seen
some mink, fewer otters, rarely martins, and on really rare occasion a
fisher passing through (as per pers coms with the people who safely trap
and relocate mustelids for FG&W here). We have smelled (but not seen)
the otters in a local preserve a few years back, seen multiple minks,
seen a few weasels, seen one martin taking it's time very clearly in an
area maybe 10 miles away, and have seen what was either a small female
fisher or a large martin (but it was moving too fast to get a clear view)
through our years here. No wolverines. Our loss... (many eastern
coyotes, many deer, many wild turkeys, too danged many Canadian Geese
often, some ducks, occasional egret, rare bald eagles passing through to
the coast, many great blue herons, vultures, plenty of crows, bluebirds
in nearby areas, rabbits, ground hogs, skunks, foxes, newts, many brown
water snakes (not moccasins here), a rare rattler, many frogs and toads,
snapping turtles, box tortoises, mud turtles, also some plants that are
currently in trouble, largely from building and from run-off pH changes
caused by gardening applications, etc. I haven't been stable enough on
my ankles to walk the soggy woods areas in a few years, though.)
-- Sukie (not a vet)
Ferret Health List co-moderator
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives fan
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
replacing
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
International Ferret Congress advisor
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5174]
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