From:
maikeru207
Date: 2002-06-01 02:07:00 UTC
Subject: Help please - GI problem, possibly ECE??
I'm really stressed out about this so I'll apologize now if this
turns into one big run on sentence. Here goes....Ubu has been losing
weight over the past month while he has been shedding, from 3.3 lbs
to 2.5 lbs. We took a trip out of town for 4 days and left our
ferret with some friends who have two healthy ferrets (4 months and 1
year). While we were gone Ubu started vomiting and threw up a 2
inch, pinky finger size hairball. Our friends took Ubu to the vet
and he received fluids for dehydration. He did well the following
day and then became kind of lethargic and started to have diarrhea.
It's been two days since the hairball came up and Ubu still has
diarrhea and has not eaten his normal kibble since yesterday. He
does seem to be drinking water OK. I started feeding him chicken
baby food today which he eats off my finger but only about 1 or 2
teaspoons each time (3x today). I was hoping that all this was
related to the hairball, but now I'm starting to think maybe ECE from
the 4 month old ferret (in addition to the hairball). Any thoughts
or opinions would be greatly appreciated??
And some questions:
Should I feed strictly chicken baby food until his poops become less
runny? Do you think he may have developed an aversion to his usual
kibble due to a possible correlation between his kibble and the
vomiting up of the hairball? He has taken several pieces of a new
kibble which I have a sample of, but I'm afraid if I start giving
more to him the new kibble will just upset his stomach and make the
diarrhea worse. What's the best approach?
If I can get him in tomorrow, I think I'll try to have the vet run
some blood tests to rule out other problems. Thanks for any advice
or comments. Michael