From:
Bruce Williams, DVM
Date: 2001-03-08 21:49:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Stress Related Poops....(IMPORTANT YEAST POST)
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., phyllis_marie_0911@y... wrote:
> With all this you would think that everything is perfect. Well,
the
> problem is her poops - yellow mush, sometimes outlined in liquid,
> with frequent little drops when she is out playing with her new
> brothers and sister (all of whom get along very well with her).
>
> I did take a poop sample to the vet to be checked and he found
> nothing disconcerting except perhaps high level of yeast like found
> in bakery products (which I do not feed any of the ferrets). He
put
> her on flagyl and another med for yeast for 7 days. The poops
> haven't changed much except that there are fewer small drops when
she
> is out playing.
>
> Question - does this sound stress-related? Should I just be
patient
> and give her more time or should I be looking for a medical
> condition? My vet is saying give her time and it will pass.
After 5 weeks, a normal well-adjusted ferrets, as she sounds like,
shouldn't still have stress-related diarrhea. At this point, let's
do some bloodwork and see if we get any hits. Let's also run another
pair of fecals, at least three days apart.
Ok - everyone - LISTEN UP! (vets, too.) Ferrets have a lot of yeast
as a normal finding in their GI tract. It is a normal finding - the
yeast doesn't do much of anything, except result in false positive
fecals - resulting in diagnosis of everything from coccidia to Toxo,
and some needless and ineffective treatment.
Actually, the yeast can be an opportunistic invader in megaesophagus,
but that is the only disease that I have seen this type of yeast be a
significant player, and only rarely in that.
Yeast in fecals is common and is not a problem.
With kindest regards,
Bruce H. Williams, DVM, DACVP
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