From:
amortimer@aol.com
Date: 2001-09-07 23:19:00 UTC
Subject: Re: ECE?
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "Mike Janke" <mjanke@m...> wrote:
> I could be WAAAYYYY off base here, but I thought Flagyl was
> prescribed mostly by vets who didn't know about ECE and were
> attempting to treat a possible parasitic (giardia?) infection. I
> didn't think it was used as a general purpose antibiotic. Again,
my
> take on Flagyl may be all wrong as I'm neither a vet or a
> pharmacist. All I know is it's really nasty stuff and very
difficult
> to dose a ferret with it.
I am not a vet, but have had LOTS of experience with ferrets
w/diarrhea! Metronidazole (Flagyl) is a great med. for diarrhea as it
covers a good range of bacteria. My vet., who's an exotics vet only,
and I both believe that ECE is blamed for almost all diarrheas when,
in fact, sometimes (or mostly)it is caused by something else. My vet.
typically prescribes a Clavamox/Metronidazole combo. first (Amoxi.
does not seem to work as well) and it has always worked well in all
mine. Yes, ferrets hate Flagyl (and it's a pain to give), but I
counteract the spitting it all over by overdosing (in the syringe) by
about 1/4 as to compensate for spitting losses!
It does seem though that everyone who posts about diarrhea
automatically assumes that it is ECE, but all diarrheas can mimic ECE
like making them go off food and water, lethargy, dehydration, etc.