From:
Bruce Williams, DVM
Date: 2001-04-02 00:32:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Ingested pencil eraser
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "Gail Sherman Reilly"
<gailreilly@u...> wrote:
> First, as an FML defector, I would like to thank Dr. Williams and
all the
> other vets for their invaluable help on this list.
The help is always available, but I hope that everyone knows that the
FHL and the FML co-exist very well, and there is certainly a need as
well as a purpose for both. It is not our intent to "lure" anyone
from the FML, and I consider BIG and many of the FML to be good
friends. That said...
My problem is as
> follows. I stupidly left a mechanical pencil with an eraser lying
around
> Thursday night, and Friday morning discovered about of third of the
eraser
> had been chewed off. I immediately suspected Bandit was the
culprit, as he
> has always been the only one to take any interest in erasers (and
remote
> control buttons, and anything else he shouldn't eat.) I examined
his stool,
> and sure enough, found little pink eraser bits. He has been on a
steady
> ferretlax dose since the incident. His stool seems somewhat
normal, keeping
> in mind the ferretlax, and the fact that none of my guys have had
completely
> normal stools since a bout of ECE when Bandit first arrived, and a
> recurrence last August when I added Taz to the mix. His behavior
has been
> absolutely unchanged. He is bouncy and energetic. At what point
can I
> assume he is out of the woods? The eraser is in such little bits,
it's very
> hard to tell how much has passed, and how much is still in him.
All you can do is keep pushing the Laxatone and watching the stool.
Put it in a bowl of water and swish it around.
There is no time limit on foreign bodies - they can all pass within
days, or can hang around for weeks or even months. Things to watch
for as signs of a possible problem would be him going off his food,
vomiting, passing dark and foul-smelling poop, and just moping around.
With this history, if you see any significant alteration in
behaviour, I would strongly recommend a trip to the vet. If he gets
blocked, surgery is recommended sooner than later. If I see severe
GI signs in a ferret with this history, I go in surgically pretty
quickly - no sense waiting around to see if he passes it.
It sounds like everythings going to be okay, but it never hurts to be
observant.
With kindest regards,
Bruce H. Williams, DVM, DACVP
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