From:
"joclynatuo"
Date: 2010-04-25 18:39:14 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Mystery Poop Problem
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
do you use water straight from the tap? if so, try filtering it before giving it to the ferrets.
i prefer brita over pur although either will do. both will remove particles that may be in the water as well as some of the chemical additives that are used to make the water safe to drink (chlorine and ammonia) [See below post since ammonia is a nitrogen fertilizer and run-off byproduct -- Mod]. even just letting the water sit in a container over night will allow the chlorine to dissipate - and too much chlorine will definitely upset the digestive tract.
as already mentioned, just like us, their stool may not be of the same consistancy every day - various things can and do affect this. small changes in routines, big deal stress situations, a virus in the system, even a new bag of food can cause differences.
yes, antibiotics kill all bacteria in the system; not just the bad ones! i always give plain yogurt (no fruit/flavorings or sugar) mixed into their gravy for a few days after the course of treatment is done to assist the digestive tract in getting back to being balanced. just make sure the yogurt has active cultures in it.
as for evo, i'm another one that's never experienced the issues of soft stool/diarrhea during or after switching the ferrets to it. i DO do the change-over very, very, very slowly though, so, that is definitely a factor in reducing chances of there being issues.
natura changed the formula's back in october. the stores where i get it still had old formula on the shelves as recently as january. you may have switched off to the other brands before getting a bag with the new formula. the new formula may not cause the issues; especially if you do the switch-over very slowly.
it can take them up to 6 months to completely adjust to a new diet and, during that time, funky stools may occur. since you did recently change the diet (and didn't specify how long they were on the evo or how quickly/slowly you did the switch-overs), they are still be in an adjustment phase with the dietary changes.
even with that in play, seedy poo is indicative of the food not being digested properly. this may indicate an issue like ibd. if it's just something that happens on occassion, i wouldn't be too worried. if you're seeing this every day and not seeing any stools that are 'normal', this needs to be investigated further. you can modify the diet by removing chicken based products - chicken is a known allergy issue for some ferrets. something with lamb or rabbit or some other type of poultry (turkey, duck, quail, etc).
rank odor, if only on occassion and not every day, is also something that wouldn't be of all that much concern. if something is out of balance in the system or there is a stressor in play, then excess odor can occur. any treats being given can cause extra odor - especially if they are highly processed items.
also, certain fish products in some of the kibbles do seem to cause extra odor in the stool. i previously used totally ferret and zupreem and when i switched over to evo, excess 'rank-type' odor went away completely.
i've even used the new fish-based (herring and salmon) evo kibble and, in general, have not seen any increase in odors. an occassional stinky poo, yes. that was from one ferret and it's not been a daily thing, so, it may be that he just ate a lot of the fish kibble rather than the poultry kibble on those days.
other than the seedy poo, it doesn't sound like there's all that much to worry about. they're still in transition with the food changes, so, most of the issues should clear up.
i would also recommend doing more extensive testing on the stool (forget who else mentioned that). doesn't hurt to be completely sure about exactly what types of bacteria are there - most are to be expected; there are some that would be an issue and the in-house tests aren't detailed enough to id them.
[The ammonia note got me curious so I checked
into it. Ammonia apparently is not added to tap
water but does occur in some areas where there
is a lot of run-off with fertilizers, especially in
highly agricultural areas. To remove it or reduce
it the plants use degasification, or cation exchange
resin, and chlorine can change it to chloramine
which is then removed.
See resources like:
http://www.freshwatersystems.com/s-265-ammonia-in-water.aspx
which had the clearest explanation of the knowledgeable
resources found -- better than the water company ones I
found.
-- Moderator]
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