From:
ferretsonly@hotmail.com
Date: 2001-05-11 22:39:00 UTC
Subject: repeated passing of blood
We need some ideas here. Sorry for the book...
Male ferret, Marshall Farms, app. 2 years old, dark sable with white
toes, 1475 grams, 23.5 inches long who loves flagyl (not a typo) and
loves kissing, seeks female -- oops wrong forum.
Symptoms: 5 to 6 episodes (in 6 months) of vomiting followed by the
passing of frank blood from the anus. Sometimes the blood is in the
form of clots and other times just massive amounts of blood.
History: I've had R2 since November 25, 2000. He shares a cage with
5 friends. One of those ferrets is Aleutian's positive as are three
others in my home (I have 15 altogether). All ferrets were ELISA
tested on March 31st. All were negative except the known positives.
Note: The Aleutian's appears to be the non-active variety (is this
correct?) as my other ferrets have lived for 5-6 years with a
positive ferret and none have become positive.
It's possible that R2 had one episode of bloody diarrhea in the
November 20-25th time-frame.
On Christmas morning, his vomiting woke me up at 7am. He vomited for
about 15 minutes then appeared completely normal. He acted like he
wanted out of the cage so I put him down with his friends. He then
proceeded to pass a long "string" of blood. When he shook, blood
when up the wall about 3 feet. The emergency clinic gave him flagyl,
baytril, carafate, and reglan. We also gave him fluids. The next
day, he seemed 100% normal. He continued on this regime for 14 days
(through 1/8).
On 1/10, R2 started vomiting again (no blood noticed). We treated
him with the same course - thinking he just hadn't shook the bug.
On 2/6, R2 started vomiting and passing blood again. We treated him
with the same course but added acidophilus and kept him on carafate
for 4 weeks.
On 3/19, one of the ferrets passed a bloody stool on the kitchen
floor. Suspecting R2, I took him in for blood work (CBC + Chem 27).
*Everything* was normal except:
globulin 3.7
albumin 2.9
cholesterol 90 (I'm jealous)
HGB 18.2
lymphocytes 61
(I have all the values here if that would help). On day 10 of the
treatment, we added Imuran (0.26 every third day) which continues to
this day. Because of the elevated globulin, we did the ELISA test.
We also tested (abet only once) for coccidia (negative).
On 4/30, R2 started vomiting again and passed enough blood to make my
husband (and me for that matter) ill. We started him on flagyl,
amoxi, carafate, and reglan.
R2 *never* gives me any warning that he is getting sick and within 2
days of starting treatment, he is his wild self again. He mostly eats
Totally Ferret (not a recalled bag) but has access to equal mixture
of TF, Iams Lamb and Rice, Innova, and Eukanuba. He gets a warm bowl
of Bob's Chicken Soup nightly, which he loves. The water bowl is
cleaned twice daily as is the litter pan. R2 gets out of the cage at
least twice daily for 1-3 hours each time and acts like my other
healthy 2 year olds. None of my other ferrets are ill.
Ok. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
-Carla