From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2004-08-29 18:41:42 UTC
Subject: RE: Metronidazole question
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <6072010.1093804902568.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
That sounds like your vet is considering Helicobacter, but if so a better combination from the giver's point of view (and it sure seems from the ferret's) is Biaxin, Amoxi, and Carafate from our experience, though it does cost more. It doesn't sound like Helicobacter to me, but maybe your vet has run into a spate of this presentation with something in your area in the recent past and found this combo to work.
There are past posts on way to give the pill form more easily than the liquid form.
The Archives are in
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
Here's a good one on how to give it:
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG7439
BTW, we've used Flagyl in the past (though we prefer to avoid it) and have not have ferrets stop eating due to that med as i recall -- though we have had some who didn't eat willingly ot very willingly due to the type of infection they had since some infections like ECE can cause that in some ferrets.
Important question: If these two ferrets have not previously had ECE have you brought any new ferrets into the household or exposed your ferrets to any in the last few weeks? Have you handled any, esp. pet shop kits and then come home and handled yours?
Many things can cause green stools: infections, parasites, bad food, stashed treats gone bad, adjusting to new foods, etc.
Green stools mean that things are going through the intestine too fast. That can also make them slimey, and so can mucus from colonic irritation.
Was a stool check done? Did your vet plan on other stool checks since some things don't always show up.
As Mike says there are real risks in over-using antibiotics, the same risks that are present when the full run of antibiotics isn't used up. Each is a route to developing bacteria which are resistant to antibiotics, and that is what leads to antibiotic resistant infections later on. (Basically, bacteria have a lot of generations during the course of treatments, and the survivors are going to be those who are not killed off by the antibiotics. That is why a run of antibiotics and the doses given must be long enough and large enough to finish off the population of that bacterium type, and why antibiotics should not be used when they aren't called for because it increases exposures to antibiotics which result in stronger bacteria populations.