QUESTION:
I have a four year old male whose bowel movements have varied between loose little runny piles and just a little runny mess spurting out. He makes noisy little farts while trying to go. I have had him to the vet, and he checked his stool and found nothing. Snoopy basically just eats his food which hasn't been changed. This has been going on for several months and I feel as though something needs to be done. I'm not sure if you would consider it constipated or diarrhea but it is not normal. It also has a really bad stinky odor. Any suggestions I could pass on to my vet would be greatly appreciated. My other ferret has been fine.

ANSWER:
The poor little thing must be miserable by now! Has your vet tried him on an antibiotic yet? It could be an infection in the intestines causing that and usually an antibiotic will clear it up.

Is he grinding his teeth at all, if so he could have ulcers and that will need treatment? He could also have a food allergy and might need a change of diet, to a hypoallergenic diet. Many times ferret's are diagnosed with IBD and have to change diet, usually this is confirmed be a biopsy of the intestine, however I would try meds and diet change before doing surgery.

There is one other thing I can think of and that is hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), this is often accompanied by loose stools but not all the time. To determine this, your vet would need to take a 'fasting blood glucose test', it can be treated with Prednisone.

First of all I would try the antibiotics and then if that does not seem to work then try doing the blood test, then go to a different food, do one thing at a time, so as not to stress him, plus it will be easier to tell what works.

If you need advice with any of these steps, please let me know and please keep me informed.

QUESTION:
My husband and I own 3 ferrets at the current time, and a few days ago we noticed that one of ours is rather sick. When we called our vet she said to separate her from the others and start feeding soft food to see if she gets better. Since we live in northeast Pa the weather is very hot and sticky so we were told to "shave" them down so that they don't over heat.

I guess what I am getting to is that we have a female ferret that is shaved for coolness and has been having diarrhea along with overly sleepy and not wanting to play with either us or the other ferrets. Can you suggest anything for us that my help her. We love her dearly but do not know what to do to help her.

ANSWER:
I am sorry to hear that your ferret is sick! I have NEVER heard of shaving a ferret in my life, is it because you do not have air conditioning? It would have been much better for you to turn on a fan and place in front of it, on a rack or coat hanger, a wet towel so the air could blow through and create 'cold' air for them.

Or you can take 2 liter soda bottles and 3/4 fill them and then freeze, you can wrap them in a towel and the ferret can then lay next to them to keep cool. Hair is a protection, it should not be shaven, plus it would be to no avail as the ferret's body temperature is 101-104 degrees and having limited 'sweat glands' the ferret has no way to cool itself!

As far the sick ferret goes, you did not say how old she is? She could be suffering from hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) so you will need to feed her the GERBER'S BABYFOOD CHICKEN OR TURKEY and feed about 4-5 teaspoonful twice to three times a day, warm it a little first, this will get a high meat protein into her system very quickly and will help level off the blood glucose for her.

If the diarrhea continues tomorrow, then you will need to have a 'fasting blood glucose' done by your vet to see what her glucose level is and if it is low then she will need to take prednisone twice a day along with the supplemental feeding of chicken.

Did you bring in a new ferret lately, as sometimes they can bring along a virus that will affect the others but not have anything themselves, if so a FECAL might show why she has diarrhea?