Sick ferret with digestive problems-any help appreciated!

[JoAnn]

Hi,

This is kind of a long story, but I'm really in need of some good advice so here it goes:

I'm a relatively experienced ferret owner with three girls, all of whom I've I've had for at least 3 years. Meeka is a rescue from whereabouts unknown. From what I know about her she was rescued by an individual who nursed her back to health, as she was starved and losing fur, but she couldn't keep her so I took her in. She has continually had a bit of diarrhea here and there, but it would come and go. Last January it started getting particularly bad, so I slowly changed her food and it stopped. Then it seemed like she would get used to the food and get diahhrea again, at which point I would slowly change the food again, and the whole thing would start all over. At that point there was no weight loss.


I moved in May, and a serious lack of eating and weight loss started, accompanied by green slime diahhrea. She wasn't lethargic, in fact it was the opposite; She was anxious, wasn't sleeping, and was showing these repetitive stereotypies. I took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis and prescribed Prednisolone. At this point I also switched her to a grain free kitten food. This seemed to help, her appetite returned, and she regained all the weight. I continued to give the steroid to her every day because as soon as I took her off it she would get sick again. Eventually she seemed to become immune to it, stopped eating and had diarrhea again (and serious weight loss). This time she wasn`t anxious or lethargic, but would tire quickly when playing. She is also really aggressive with my other girls, to the point where I have separated them. I took her back to the vet and this time she was diagnosed with proliferative bowel disease and prescribed an antibiotic called ChlorPalm. She isn`t eating at all at this point, I`m syringe feeding her Uncle Jim`s Duk Soup.

Things to know: I would think maybe stress from the move, but the diahrrea started before that and I`ve moved with her a few times with no problems. There is no strain or obvious stress when she poops and neither myself or the vet have felt any enlarged lymph nodes, lumps or blockages. I have a great vet but not an exotic vet, as the only exotic vet within three hours quit a month after I moved here. I highly doubt this is contagious because my other two girls are fine. The vet has suggested that if the antibiotics don`t work, the next step will be blood tests and xrays, but I`m not sure if we can wait two weeks. I`m interested in trying a raw diet with her, but I`m hesitant because she`s already in pretty serious gastric distress for unknown reasons, I don`t want to agitate it. I also don`t even know where to start with raw diets.  

Thanks for reading my novel. I`m worried about my little girl and any help or suggestions at all are appreciated!

[Sherry]

Okay, to start EE is a type of IBD. Something raw fed ferrets benefit from with this is to steadily change their food on a rotation. Speed for change is individual, either a slow change over to a new protein or a faster one. It amounts to mixing in(as an example) 75% old protein, 25% new protein, then 50/50, then 25/75 etc.
It *might* work in a similar fashion with kibble but it's been years since I've fed it.

[JoAnn]

When you mention EE are you referring to Eosinophillic Enteritis?

[Deleted]

Hi JoAnn. I'm sorry that your little one is going thru so much and understand your concern. I'm not as familiar with these problems as some of our senior staff, like Sherry.
If you ask a question and get an answer, and then have another question(whew, I hope you know what I mean), you will get a quicker response by tagging that person. To tag someone, hover your cursor over their screen name and then type it in (using the @ character) like this: @poncesmom. I already tagged Sherry for you.
Good Luck and I hope you find some answers for your Meeka. I have a Mika, too.

[Sherry]

Yes, I am, simply in that both cause severe inflammation of the bowel and both often require prednisolone to bring under control. Someone here who has experience with this particular issue although not with kibble is bitbyter
He might have some more info. Please understand the majority of us feed a species appropriate raw diet, so narrowing an issue down is easier.

[Thérèse]

I'm just wondering if maybe mixed in with her IBD she hasn't begun to be adrenal because you mentioned her being aggressive with your others and needing to be separated. Just a thought

[bitbyter]

EE is a type of IBD that is also associated with other allergic symptoms like swelling, redness (especially the feet, ears and face), extreme itchiness and hives. Does she show any of these symptoms? If not then I'm not sure it would be EE. The key with Wilma was identifying the proteins that were causing her issues. It turns out it wasn't the proteins themselves but I am 99% positive it is a drug or something else added to the meat. She has no reactions to antibiotic free or organic meats. Now that we have gotten her on these she no longer has any of the bad symptoms and I can keep her digestive issues in check with a small dose of pre every 5 days.

I'd see if you can get her switched our raw soup recipe as soon as possible using organic or antibiotic free meats. Then move her to slivers or grinds as soon as possible (the soup stage can be rough on an animal with diarrhea issues but if the food sensitivity is an issue you might even see an improvement on soup)

drive.google.com/?tab=Xo&authuser=0#folders/0BweJtjXjL6hdNWc1bDV3dzB4Uk0

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk.

[unclejoe]

Therese may have a point re: adrenal but the first priority is getting her to eat. Uncle Jim's has probiotics which are helpful but I wouldn't want her on it more than a couple days or so. Chicken seems to be the most common meat ferrets are sensitive to. Try turkey in your soups instead. You can try baby food or ground as a base to start. warm it to at least room temp. My guys didn't like cold soup at first but ate it warm. You can flavor it with uncle Jim's or ground evo to get her to try it. If she eats that you can transition to raw as she gets better. Good luck
Oh One more thing: are her teeth ok? Eddie first stopped eating kibble and then soups because he had a couple bad teeth. He was in a lot of pain but never got aggressive but rosa was more aggressive before her ear surgery.