From:
deevecchione@cs.com
Date: 2001-04-06 08:29:00 UTC
Subject: Ferret still grinding-2nd posting
Hello FHL,
I didn't get any response to my post on Wednesday, so I thought I
would try
again.
BJ is a 4 year old gib, not descented. Had IBD for many months and
did not
respond to any antibiotics or even pred. When he stopped eating and
dropped
weight, my vet took him for a couple days, gave him one injection of
a
steroid and got him to eat again by offering him Friskies Kitten. My
vet said
some ferrets simple cannot handle the richness of TF and premium
kitten
foods. His stools have shaped up nicely and he put the weight back
on.
However, he started grinding his teeth when eating. I put him on the
ulcer
protocol of Carafate, Amoxi and Biaxin. After 17 days it hadn't made
any
difference and my syringes were frustrating me(sudden stops and
starts), so I
gave up on it. He never had black, tarry stools, so I'm not sure
it ever
was ulcers or helicobacter. He has very large bowel
movements...almost cat
sized..1/2 inch in diameter. Could this still be a problem with the
intestine? Or is the larger size of the stool because of all the
corn in his
diet? His stools have always been larger than my other guys who are
descented. Does descenting restrict the diameter of the stool at
all?
My vet wants to do a barium x-ray to check for a floating hairball.
I
understand that they only show something 10 % of the time. What
should I do?
Would appreciate any help!
Dodie