From:
Julie Fossa
Date: 2001-02-25 07:19:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Intermittent blood in
stools/chronic diarrhea
Hi Erika,
Could the parasites that Dr. K. treated for have been
coccidia? I've not heard of injections for this, as
the common treatment is Albon, but I suppost it is
possible.
Coccidia in an intestinal parasite, which dogs can
get, too, which can cause a great deal of intestinal
troubles. Ferrets can have this parasite without any
outward signs, and often it can not even be detected
if a stool sample is checked.
It is spread easily, through the litterbox, and can
show up as diarrhea and sometimes even blood in their
stool. If this is what it is, you would want to treat
all your animals (at least the ferrets, I would
think).
We take every surrender through a 10 day course of
Albon, as a matter of precaution, before taking our
kids out of quarantine. It is relatively inexpensive,
easy to administer, and could be a simple answer to
what is bothering Tito...
In erradicating coddidia, you will want to disinfect
their cages, litterboxes, scoop...everything daily
during the course of treatment, or the (oh
boy,..oocytes?) eggs will remain to re-infect.
Hugs to Tito,
Julie
--- Erika Matulich <ematulich@a...> wrote:
> 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
>
>
=====
Julie Fossa
West Central Ohio Ferret Shelter
419/ 225-8383
"Just A Place To Hang Your Hammock
While You're Looking for A Home!"
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