Message Number: YG10037 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Roger Vaughn
Date: 2002-01-11 15:48:00 UTC
Subject: Z/D, seedy stools and tired fert

Hi, all.

I worry incessantly about one of my little guys, Digger, so here I go again. There's probably nothing wrong with him, but I don't have a lot of experience with ferrets yet.

I have posted in the past about his "soft" poops. Not runny, but not solid either - kind of squish-when-you-pick-them-up consistency. Thanks to many helpful list suggestions, I put him on Hill's Z/D.

Well, now, his stools are a nice brown color, and they are still kind of soft, but almost all of them now have that "birdseed" appearance. Our other new little guy was also eating the Z/D (easier than trying to feed them separately), and came out with the same poops.

Is this typical when they are being fed Z/D? Their vet, who is very talented and helpful but NOT a ferret expert, isn't sure whether this is normal or not.

Digger also seems a little "tired" these days, more so than when we first brought him home. Not lethargic, but not energetic like our new kit (who is definitely a live wire). He is, let's see (1...2...3...) 9 months old now, so I would still expect some energy out of him. But some days he will come out of his nest, run for a few minutes, flop on his belly (normal, I know, but his body language says "tired"), and go back to bed after only a few minutes out. When we did a CBC back in November he showed up as anemic (PCV in the 40's), but the rest of his blood chem was normal. That may account for some of his tiredness. I'm planning to get another blood screen done, but we haven't yet.

Between these three, the birdseed poops, the tiredness and the anemia, is there anything we should be considering that we are not? He doesn't show any other symptoms of anything like EE, ECE, or IBD, and has in fact even gained a little weight. Oh, he's a neutered Marshalls. Can we safely say that he's normal and that this is just the way some of them are?

I know I worry too much about him, but I want to be sure.

Roger, Digger and Bear