Charlene:
 
        >So - what do you do if a ferret has been poisoned?  Do they pump
their stomachs - give them epicach - adrenaline etc like with humans?
 
        That would all depend on what they ate.  If it was caustic, you can
do much more damage bringing it back up.  In those cases, we try to dilute
it.  In the case of non-caustic materials, you can take a syring and squirt
hydrogen peroxide in the back of their throat.  This will usualy induce
vomiting and is a fairly safe way to do it.
         I suppose
>I suppose that maybe kidney damage could have occured with poison flowing
through it,right?  What do you watch for when you suspect your ferret has
been poisoned?
 
        Poisioning is a very vague term.  Different toxins cause different
signs, based on what they have gotten into - tylenol affects the liver,
ethylene glycol the kidneys, hexachlorophene the nervous system and so
forth.  You are esentially watching for anything out of the ordinary.
 
>The poison control people said they didn't think that ferrets would vomit up
>glycol ethylene, but they seemed pretty unsure.  Any info out there?
 
        No, it owuld have to be induced.  Ethylene glycol is the main
ingredient in antifreeze and is very toxic to the kidneys.  However, I don't
think it is in very high concentrations, so I wouldn't be extremely worried.
However, you may wnat to take the guys into the vet in a couple of weeks for
a blood test to make sure that the kidneys are functioning normally.  There
is very little that you can do at this point - the damage is already done,
if there is any.  But you would like to know so that you can take
precautions in the future.
 
Bruce H. Williams, DVM         Dept. of Veterinary Pathology
Chief Pathologist, AccuPath    Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
[log in to unmask]         Washington, D.C.  20306-6000
                               [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1216]