Vet and I are stumped

[shayla]

Hello everyone! Some of you already know small details about my newest addition but I have more to add and a follow up question on whether anyone knows what could be wrong with him. 

I adopted a young male late August, he was born in June. I noticed immediately that Eden had a severe limp in his left back leg and booked him a day visit with the vet to do full examinations. The vet took multiple X-rays of Edens spine and legs as well as put him on some antibiotics. The vet made sure to take a ton of pictures with the X-ray but there was nothing visibly wrong with him. The reason the vet also put him on antibiotics was because about a week after adoption he had a random 8 hour episode diarrhea and blood. I assume roughly 8 hours because some of it was really dry when I woke up and went to take him out, but there was also a really fresh bloody one. He never had another episode of the bloody poops aside from that night, though. 

The vet told me to wait until he was fully grown and then to take him back for more X-rays once the "growth caps" had closed, so that's what I've been waiting on. 

She did say it should be fine to monitor his playtime with my other ferrets that he gets along with so I have been doing that as of the last few weeks. 

The reason I post this message tonight is because I went in to take him for a short walk outside and noticed in his litter pan that he had one big soggy, bloody poop; looking exactly as it did during his 8 hour period of having them (I will attach an image). 

I picked him up and let him walk around to take a look at him, he's acting completely normal. Limp and all. FYI: the Vet at this point is assuming his limp is a deformity that he will have with him for life but we are doing the X-Rays at 9 months old to make sure. 

Do you guys have any idea why he had this bloody stool? Or what the episode could have been 4 months ago?



Thank you in advance for all your time and assistance!

[unclejoe]

Hi.
Did the vet test his stool for blood? What do you feed him? I ask because some foods contain dyes which can cause odd colored poops. And, in your pic, I see a little red but not bright red, and not a lot, like a lower GI bleed.
A ton of x-rays should show a deformity.
I have had 2 ferrets, Eddie and Mogli, that have had odd gaits, almost like their front and back legs belonged to different ferrets. It's kind of cute, but never caused any serious issues. Mogli was just tested for insulinoma, and his blood glucose was 68. so we're starting him on pred.

[shayla]

In the 4 months I’ve had him he’s only had stool like this on two occasions, other than that it’s been perfectly healthy so the vet didn’t check for anything since by the time he had seen her the episode was already over and he was fine.
They are all on a mixture of Origen and Wysong, he’s the only one that’s had these reddish poops. The only thing he has different than the others is freeze dried chicken.

All the X-rays came back completely normal, and she took a lot! It’s only his rear left leg that seems to have a problem; it sort of swings outward when he walks.

Is there anything else you think the red stool could be? 

[shayla]

[Sherry]

Early stage IBD is possible, but not likely if stools are generally normal and only the odd one is like this.

[shayla]

Yeah, normally all his poops are incredibly healthy looking. This is his second episode of these types of poops since I adopted him. The first episode lasted the span of one night with around 4 poops around 4 months ago. This episode started last night and is still going but improving a little.

He’s eating/drinking/playing as usual through the whole episode, just like last time. 😣

[shayla]

Episode is over, his latest poop is normal again. I just don’t understand. 😑

[Heather]

Have you done a journal. I know...it's a vague happening but I would be tempted to do a journal, for several months and see what you come up with. Take special note of diet and anything that may happen out of the ordinary. All it needs is something like had chicken today and aunt marge was over....they don't have to be large entries but it will offer clues Sometimes there are little things that we don't think about. All I had to do at one point was a new stereo system, the different tone was enough to set a couple of my hybrids off. The levels weren't changed but it's tone was much improved over my previous system. Putting up the Christmas tree.....Poor Barbossa almost knocked himself out trying to get into the tunnel when he first came up to play. It took him several days to get over the whole thing. A few days later, it didn't help that his sister dropped out of it and fattened him, scaring the crap out of him. Judging by her war dance and dooking she was really pleased with the results
ciao

[shayla]

Awww poor little Barbossa! That's a clever idea. I'll definitely start taking a journal and see if anything starts to add up. Thanks Heather!