From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2010-08-01 20:30:24 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] difficulty passing feces without actual constipation
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
Hilbert who is 7 years and 8 months old is having some trouble passing
feces. He appear to need to walk to defecate and then, of course,
where and when it comes out isn't under control. It is also getting
drier, though in other ways it's normal. His urination is sometimes
in a puddle but sometimes in a stream as he walks. He is able to
urinate and defecate. The waste just winds up in many locations to
clean (though he is good about letting us know that he has gone).
Hilbert has a history of a number of serious health problems: cystine
uroliths, bladder diverticulum, bilateral hydronephrosis (when the
uroliths were removed and diverticulum repaired in his first year his
adrenals also came out due to be being so inflamed by the rubbing of
his swollen kidneys but an emergency vascular clip caught a little of
his right one. He had a massive pancreatic beta cell tumor out
earlier this year and went into a serious level of diabetes that later
resolved but also was causing acute kidney failure (so he had survived
serious kidney impairment twice in life by then). A matter of weeks
or months later he got a severe GI virus which caused extreme
dehydration and further kidney problems (though I can't recall if he
also began kidney failure that time) and also almost killed him but
with care he got past that, too. The remaining adrenal remnant that
has gone hyper-hormonal can not be found.
He is on deslorelin implant for adrenal disease, Prednisolone
(insulinoma and adrenal insufficiency) and Fludrocort (adrenal
insufficiency). Right now he is eating often enough that he has not
needed diazoxide (which he terribly hates but which helped him a lot
when he did not eat often enough even when he ate enough volume in
total)
So, he has and has had multiple things which might be contributing to
the dry and hard to pass feces. If his kidneys are creating more
dilute urine now there may be less in his solid waste to begin with,
the virus might have messed up his peristalsis, his prostate may be
starting up and making it harder to pass either urine or feces or
both. His latest bladder and heart x-rays are fine, ditto his recent
blood work (CBC and Chem Panel) but kidney disease can often be hidden
in ferrets.
As a result Steve and I need input from people who know more about
this topic than I do, and obviously, I will be asking his excellent
vets.
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/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
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