Hi folks, We had a bit of a scare at our household this week. One of our ferrets, Jasmine, managed to get ahold of a rubber stamp, and before I discovered her dragging it into a hidey hole, she had managed to ingest a chunk of rubber approximately 1/2" x 1/4". At the time, I didn't know if she had eaten it, or just chewed it off. Anyway, the next morning, said ferret was having trouble defecating, simply leaving a gooey brown puddle in several corners, like she tried to 'go' a few times but was unsuccessful. We monitored her for a few hours, and then, since it had been about 12 hours since I caught her with the rubber stamp, and she hadn't had a bowel movement (that we noticed) since then, we thought we had better run her into the vet. The vet explained that in sitations like internal blockages with ferrets, the items causing the blockage may or may not be visible on an X-ray, so he ordered X-rays, followed by an oral administration of barium. The vet said that in his experience, most of the time the barium would cause the ferret to pass the item causing the blockage, and if it didn't, the barium would show up on an X-ray, allowing him to determine the location of the blockage (in case the material causing the blockage did not show up on the X-ray). If barium did not cause the blockage to be passed, surgery would have been required. The original X-ray showed the piece of rubber, and it looked like it was lodged in her stomach, so they administered the barium and kept her overnight to moniter her feces. Luckily, the next day, Jasmine passed the piece of rubber, so surgery was not required, and we were able to take her home, where she has been eating, playing and pooping normally. The vet gave me an itemized list of what it would cost for everything from diagnosis to surgery so there would be no surprises. I thought I'd include the list to get some opinions from you fellow ferret owners / veterinarians as to whether the charges were reasonable. Here's the estimate -- Note, items are in Canadian dollars. Item Unit cost Units Charges 1. Exam - larger exotics 39.00 1 39.00 2. Barium - oral administration 22.50 1 22.50 3. X-Ray - 2 views - 1 film 65.50 1 65.50 4. X-Ray - additional - 2 view 47.50 1 47.50 ---- 5. Fluid therapy D - 101-325 cc 20.00 2 40.00 6. Injections in hospital - B 15.00 5 75.00 7. Anesthetic - iso - 1st 15 m. 52.50 1 52.50 8. Anesthetic - iso - ex. 15 m. 31.50 3 94.50 9. Operating rm. fee per 15 min 17.00 4 68.00 10. Gastrotomy - small 209.50 1 209.50 [Posted in FML issue 1044]