From:
ferretsonly@hotmail.com
Date: 2001-10-11 02:48:00 UTC
Subject: Re: BLOODY DIARRHEA & VOMITING
Nichole,
Kris McDevitt, who owns Spike, and I could have written your post.
The answer to
> Has anyone ever heard of these symptoms, does it have a name,
> and what do we do??
is yes. See posts 3477, 4380, and 4416 for more information. There
were a flurry of these posts in late April and May when we too were
looking for answers.
> Our male ferret is 13 months and since he was 6 months old he has
had
> 4 different episodes of bloody diarrhea (large amounts), vomiting,
> dehydration, & lethargy.
This sure sounds like eosinophilic gastroenteritis. It affects male
ferrets under 14 months of age most often.
Bearcat has had those symptoms about 6 times in the year since I
adopted him. It was almost like clockwork - every 6 weeks. My vet and
I tried many things but finally started him on .25cc Imuran every
other day. Because my vet believed that it was an allergic reaction,
we started Bearcat on Hills Prescription Diet z/d. The z/d is pre-
digested so even though it started out as chicken, it cannot be
recognized by the body as that source of protein.
The last episode was July 14th so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Bearcat lives with 5 other ferrets so they all get the z/d and all
love it. The six of them (5 boys and 1 girl average age about 2.5
years old) eat a 4 pound bag in 30 days. It costs about $16.00 (CHEAP
compared to what Bearcat was going through!)
In my other group, I have an older ferret (7+) whose life has been
saved by the z/d. She was already on the Imuran for Inflamatory Bowel
Disease but continued to go downhill rapidly. We started her on z/d
about a year ago. The recovery from IBD has been astonishing.
Good luck.
-Carla