From:
Erika Matulich
Date: 2001-02-25 05:54:00 UTC
Subject: Intermittent blood in stools/chronic diarrhea
One of my students "dropped off" a ferret in my office, so Tito has been
my latest "rescue." Fat, bouncy MF ferret, about 2 years old. Took him
home, where he immediately got ECE. My ferrets had their ECE in 1997, so
it is clear that this thing hangs around for MANY years! Tito did not
seem to be too bad, but did lose some weight. After two weeks of turkey
baby food, pedialyte, and antibiotics, he seemed OK. A month later, he
quit eating again and dropped a whole pound. Dr. Kemmerer found that he
had a liver infection, and put him on Clinadrops. Another test a month
later showed the liver infection cleared up.
However, ever since the ECE, Tito has had intermittent bloody stools. He
will look fine for about 4-5 days, have fairly normal poops, and then a
day where he feels terrible, poops pools of blood and/or mucous, and
won't eat. This stage lasts for about 24-36 hours, and then he is back
to normal, eating well. Dr. K gave him a shot for worms a few months
ago (I'm sorry, I forgot which type of shot or which type of worms, but
something having to do with Tito growing up with a Rottweiler) -- she
had seen a few cases of intermittent bloody stools that were caused by
these worms. However, this did not help either. Dr. Kemmerer will be
running a barium series on him next week -- we haven't found a thing on
palpation dealing with a blockage. His blood tests are now all normal.
Any suggestions? Someone suggested stress, because he is terrified of my
ferrets and has been isolated in the bedroom. But I would think
stress=ulcers=black, tarry stools, and his stools are bright red, fresh
blood. He does chew on things -- ate the foam handlebar covers off a
Razor scooter. But I put him on Laxatone to no effect. One other odd
thing -- he is just COVERED with mast cell tumors (about 12 of them),
which Dr. K will be removing shortly.
Thanks for any suggestions you might provide,
Erika Matulich and the Terrific Ten