From:
luvri@hotmail.com
Date: 2001-03-27 22:21:00 UTC
Subject: For Dr. Williams or any vet
I have a 2 1/2 year old male who has always been extremely healthy. A
couple of weeks ago he started to exhibit some strange habits. He
seems to grind his teeth often when eating, which I understand
usually means the ferret is experiencing some discomfort or pain. He
also makes frequent, urgent trips to the litter pan. He pushes and
pushes but only small amounts of his stool come out sometimes, and
sometimes nothing at all. He is eating in much smaller amounts, so I
can understand not as much coming out, but this is starting to get me
very worried. He has gotten slimmer, but not skinny. Other than that
he is pretty normal. He has a ton of energy and does seem to want to
eat more than he actually does. He does not vomit or show any other
signs of anything wrong with him. He has also been urinating fine as
far as I can tell.
We have seen our vet twice over the past couple of weeks and have not
yet been able to figure this out. (Our vet specializes in ferrets,
reptiles and birds and has always been very good, caring and
knowledgable. He saved our female ferret's life last year, when he
removed one of her adrenals. She was very bad and when he did the
surgery, it scattered into many pieces and he had to remove it all.)
On both visits with our boy, he gave him a shot of Dexamethasone. At
the first visit he put him on Clavamox, but it really didn't agree
with him, or do anything for him after 5 days. There was no
temperature or signs of any lumps in the abdominal area. I have not
called the vet back yet, as I do not know what I should do next. I
have gotten much input from ferret owners as to possibilites, but I
would really like to have an expert opinion. Any help would be
greatly appreciated. Thank you.
-Annemarie