From:
Steve Austin
Date: 2003-02-04 01:54:18 UTC
Subject: Coccidia
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <20030203.213714.2784.13.kazpat1@juno.com>
I can only talk from experience.
My friend noted her ferret had diarrhea and kind of down,
and another friend had the same thing going on and off in
her group for a week or two. I took the one ferret to the
vet because she was so blah and the stool was positive for
coccidia. The two ferret homes were treated, and all was well.
About 5 months later one of my ferrets started to have diarrhea,
he became blah and a little dehydrated and went to the vet.
X-rays because his tummy was upset and sore on palpation,
and he had diarrhea about every 1/2 hour so a sample was easy
to get, fresh and loaded with coccidia, I saw the book and the
slide just because I am a pain. Everyone was treated, 2 weeks
into the treatment another ferret started with diarrhea, but much
worse than the first. He had uncontrolled diarrhea, and within
4 hours had a horrible burn on his underside from the stool ( bright
red and raw like I have never seen) . He was switched
to Albon and everyone else was finishing their bactrim.
For 3 days he didn't seem to get better, but active enough to refuse
the SQ fluids, drinking on his own, and eating the chicken baby food.
He has incontinence of the stool, so he was leaking everywhere, so
I had to keep him in his cage and clean the hammocks and cage
three times a day, plus put balm on his sore rear which ended up
with prolapsed rectum. He never did have frank bloody stools,
just all liquid, and some red blood mixed in at the worse of the
diarrhea.
It took him 2 weeks to regain strength and feel better. A lot of
cleaning and disinfecting. He took 21 days of albon, by the second
week the stool was negative for coccidia.
The vet said if you happen to get a sample with little organism in it
you can miss it, and if you are not sure but suspicious you may want
to do at least 2- 3 stool checks if the first ones are negative.
You can certainly get anywhere from little or no symptoms to
severe diarrhea like mine had.
Good luck,
Jeckyl is better, but still has trouble finding the litter box at times,
and if he eats the wrong thing he gets loose stools real fast.
Every other ferret recovered without a problem.
Patty
> Are there specific symptoms of coccidosis like there seem to be
> with
> Helicobactor? I seem to remember that the stools smell bad with
> coccidia or
> something , is that right? What would the stools look like, and how
> does the
> ferret present? Is there often frank bleeding in the stools or
> digested
> blood, or any blood at all? How common is this disease?
>
> Wolfy
>
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