What causes stools to be black and tarry is partly digested blood, so what it means is that there is bleeding high up in the digestive tract, for example an ulcer in the stomach will do this when it get really bad. Carafate is used to bandage the stomach. The prep that usually (but not always) goes over best is the pediatric elixir which can be gotten by prescription from pretty well any pharmacy. Carafate must be well enough separated in time from other meds so that it does not coat them and therefore cause them to work less, and unless absolutely unavoidable it must not be given with food which will largely prevent it from settling into the wounds and coating (bandaging) them. Like other meds of any type (standard, herbal, etc.) there are also meds with which it must not be given. Digoxin and Carafate do not get along well together, for example. Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 5995]