From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2007-05-14 17:21:30 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Help, Sick Ferret
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Others will go into causes of diarrhea, I am sure, so I wanted to
focus on giving you information about prolapses themseves.
Here are two old but very good posts in the FHL Archives -- available
to all and easy to use so see the address in my signature lines ---
which were sent by Dr Bruce Williams to help and can now help you, too:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG1285
> > First off, I am not a vet but am used to prolapses. How bad is it?
> > Is it pink? Red? Purple? Slight in size or large? A bad
> prolapse
> > needs veterinary care, perhaps even a bit tightening with simple
> > purse string stitching or sometimes even more correction. If it is
> > red (esp. deep red) or purple, or has not gone back in over with
> > moisturizing, or if a lot of tissue is involved I think that you
> > should immediately contact your vet and speak directly with your
> > veterinary professional. If it is mild (pink, small) try
> Preparation
> > H. If it doesn't go in with that call your vet.
>
> Good call Sukie. I often put a little cortisone (0.1%) in with the
> Preparation H.
> >
> > Be sure to wet down any food you give the kit to decrease
> irritation.
>
> I'm not sure if it will make any difference. Kibble that is chewed
> up is probably no harder on the colon than that which is pre-
> moistened.
>
>
> The key to prolapse is curing the diarrhea - the colon is straining
> to push out stool with no form - there is nothign to push against.
> In this case, the diarrhea is probably stress-related. It is
> uncommon that a prolapse could occur as the result of a stressful
> episode of only 10 hours in duration, but perhaps there was
> subclinical diarrhea earlier, and this was the last straw.
>
> Just to be on the safe side, I'd suggest a couple of fecals to make
> sure there are no parasites causing the diarrhea (I tend to doubt
> it,but it doesn't hurt to check it out.
>
>
> With kindest regards,
>
> Bruce H. Williams, DVM, DACVP
and
> Yes, the swelling in the rectum may be a mild prolapse, and is
> generally due to straining in animals with diarrhea. The blood in
> the stool, if it is fresh red blood may also be due to straining,
> or we may be dealing with a case of colitis here. After he
> defecates, rinse his anus with a small amount of cold water, and
> apply a dab of a mixture of one-half preparation H and one half
> 1.0% hydrocortisone cream to the area.
>
> Animals generally only contract ECE once, so he may have a
> chronically inflammed bowel. In generally, animals with diarrhea
> tolerate kibble very poorly, so it is probably not a good idea to
> allow him access to it (it may have contributed to his yellow,
> runny stools.) No the yellowness isn't due to eggs (I am not a fan
> of raw eggs as part of a duck soup mixture), but the fact that the
> stool is coming out undigested.
Use the plain versions without extra added meds of those products.
Some people have reduced rectum prolapses with a sugar slurry but I
don't know details of how it is used. It attracts water so that
takes down the swelling.
Very few ferrets with prolapses need surgery. When they do, most
just need a couple of stitches (a "purse string") temporarily rather
than major surgery.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
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