From:
"honoralexandria"
Date: 2008-02-23 04:49:57 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Possible IBD with insulinoma
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Emily,
Sounds like a situation I may be in soon. I.e. one of my boys who was
*just* treated for ulcer(s) and who likely has IBD (never biopsied
though) is going to the vet tommorrow for a glucose test as he's
displaying hypoglycemia signs. So, we're in reverse to you.
Anyway, some things in your post caught my eye:
"Can a ferret develop a food allergy that suddenly?"
Well, any animal can develop a food allergy to something they've been
exposed to at *any* time. A lot of people think that because an animal
has been exposed to something for "x" amount of years, they can't
possibly be allergic to it now, which isn't true. Sometimes it takes
only two exposures to be allergic to something, sometimes multiple.
I've seen dogs become allergic to chicken in their food after being on
chicken based food for 4-5 years. Also, the allergy may not have
developed suddenly, but just mediated lesser effects, and is now at
the point where it's noticeable.
I wonder if it's possible for ferrets to suffer the effects of
antibiotics in the gut like humans do? I.e. - when given broad
spectrum antibiotics, we wipe out the "good" colonies of bacteria in
our guts that help digest foods. But since ferrets are obligate
carnivores, with small tracts, I don't know if they have the same
beneficial bacterial colonies. If so though, that could be a cause of
the loose stool.
I would suspect that if the stool doesn't clear up with the help of
the prednisone then you may not be looking at IBD.
Although it makes sense that the additional stress of the Insulinoma,
which led to the ulcers, and the stress of that might cause an IBD
flare up, the steroids that she was already on for the insulinoma I
would think counteract it? If she doesn't do well on the additional
prednisone, the it may not be IBD.
You may want to talk to your vet about the biotic issue and see how
s/he feels about adding probiotics. If it weren't for the insulinoma,
I would say try giving a little bit of plain yogurt everyday, but you
don't want that extra sugar in the diet. Powdered probiotics may help,
so that's an option if the vet says it's ok to add probiotics w/out
doing yogurt.
Above all, ask the vet first.
But I hope that helped some.
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