From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2007-09-20 18:52:41 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: this is an odd ? but my ferret has a very odd smelling breath
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Besides dental, mouth, throat and stomach issues there can be other causes of strange
breath, including but not limited to:
Fecal blockage
sinus problems
some malignancies
kidney disease
liver disease
IBD sometimes
diabetes sometimes
The vet will obviously check the mouth carefully for gum disease, decay, abscesses, sores,
swollen upper throat, etc.
If a stomach ulcer becomes advanced then the feces can become extremely dark green
(almost black) or black, and even tarry. This is from digested blood.
Fecal blockage -- evident what to look for. BTW, a urinary blockage can secondarily cause
a fecal blockage.
Your vet will need to look in relation to the sinuses.
There are blood tests and urine tests (like specific gravity, pH, white cell and red cell
presence, etc.) that the vet can do to check kidney health. Unfortunately, kidney problems
often don't show up in tests for ferrets until they are pretty advanced.
The presence of liver illnesses show up in some tests, too, but liver testing is very
different for ferrets than for other animals so be sure to read things like
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/Clin_Path/ClinPath.html
and
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/PDF/Ferret_GI_path_reports.pdf
in relation to liver and GI pathology results.
Some liver illnesses might also cause some jaundice though we have had a ferret with a
badly compromised liver who never did show jaundice. Some of these (and some gall
bladder problems) can cause pale gray feces and amber urine (from the bile being
redirected to the blood so removed by the kidneys instead of going to the small intestine).
Certainly, there are other possible presentations which I am sure others will address.
As you can see, the vet may have to do some pretty wide checking...
Then again, if the ferret is not ill (or in a number of cases if the ferret is ill) you might have
a stash of something that is going bad or which the ferret should not eat or drink (like
some cleaners, cosmetics, etc.) which the critter should not eat but has been sampling in
sub-clinical amounts.
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