Message Number: SG14818 | New FHL Archives Search
From: tlcoffey@sbcglobal.net
Date: 2005-07-24 01:56:57 UTC
Subject: RE: Teddy Update - Poisoned
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <4549738.1122170217255.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>

I can't say it's impossible but we keep the ibuprofen, etc in a cabinet in the kitchen and he's never been allowed in the kitchen because I've always been afraid he would get stuck under the frig. No house plants. My thumb is anything but green. No onion. I'm allergic to onions so we never have any here. He's never, ever been outside except in the pet carrier. His cage is a metal wire ferret approved cage. His toys are all ferret safe toys and they are all intact.

We keep coming back to the litter. The litter has only been available for the past 18 months to two years and that about how long we have been using it. That is also the same period of time that he slowly started losing weight. The weight loss has been so gradual, we didn't notice until recently just how much he had really lost. I had noticed him drinking A LOT over the past couple of months but I attributed it to boredom since the kids had been so busy the last 6-8 weeks of school.

The situation seems to have appeared out of nowhere but I think it has been building up to an acute crisis. Since I first posted about finding the litter crystals in his stools, everything has been removed from his cage and within two feet of his cage and he has not been allowed out unless we are holding him.

His symptoms almost sound just like one thing I read about pets and lead poisoning but I don't know how he would have gotten a hold of anything lead.

Author wrote:
> Any chance he got into other medical anticoagulants like aspirin?
> Any chance he ate a decent bit on any of onion family foods?
> Any chance he got into any of the plants listed here which cause that type of medical response?
> http://www.aspca.org/site/FrameSet?style=User&url=../toxicplants/M01947.htm
> Has your vet talked yet with either of the veterinary poison control centers where the people are experts on this?