Bad poops for over a month

[smolfert]

Hi there.
I’m new to this forum but wanted to get opinions on what my 3yo~ ferret berry is going through for about a month.
When berry first came home with us 3 years ago he had diarrhea. I believe the original vet gave him a course of antibiotics plus benebac and he gradually got better over a month.
About a month ago he started to have watery, on and off green poops. He was lethargic, would lay on his stomach often flat on the floor and barely wanted to play. He had seedy/green/watery poops. He would paw at his mouth as if he was nauseous, and when drinking would gag/shake head.
When I noticed him dropping some weight and about 3 days after continual watery poop I took him to our local exotic vet which determined it is ECE. He started him on Metronidazole liquid and sent him home. With a weeks course of Metronidazole his poops improved just a bit, but getting Him to take Metro was a nightmare. He would cry and refuse to take it. I was fearing it was stressing him out so I asked the vet if there’s a better way/alternative to this. He prescribed amoxicillin for a weeks course. When called again about his still watery, clay colored, seedy poop he said to give Amoxicillin for another week. By then he had lost a significant amount of weight and this vet was not being very responsive to us, or helpful at all. I decided to drive him to a second exotic vet that he saw before we moved more upstate an hour south. She concluded it could be H. Plylori , or possibly Adrenal but most likely H pylori. She wanted to continue him on Amoxicillin for another two weeks. BENE-BAC spaced out with added Carafate. It has been about a week on continued Amoxicillin and Carafate (both 2x daily 0.5mg) as well as benebac. His stools aren’t as liquid but he still has minimal appetite, is looking skinnier and his stools are not great at all. I will call the vet again this Monday, however I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts on this or experienced similar with their ferret. This has been happening for quite some time and I want to try my best to help keep him comfortable as we get through this and figure it out.
Information on Care:
Number of ferrets in house: 8, all 3 years old and acquired very close together. They get along well. 2 males, 6 females. They get their own room and they have three ferret nations spliced together with fresh food/water constantly. They also free range in their gated room all day. It’s very unlikely berry got into swallowing something as I am very careful leaving things/giving things to them.
Food: orijen cat and kitten 50/50 mix with wysong ferret epigen 90. This has been their mix for a year now. Occasional amounts of raw egg/grizzly salmon oil given as treat.
Litter: paper pellets
Thanks and I appreciate your time. I will try to attach/link picture of him/ his current poops. His current weight is low for his history, he used to be almost 3 pounds but this recent poop problems have him down to 1.8~1.9 pounds which concerns me.
Most recent vet wants to do blood work for adrenal. However I may tell her to do the implant as a preventative regardless for berry. I have been debating if he actually may have IBD. I really have no clue though, so any suggestions to help him/ I out would be appreciated.

[smolfert]

Picture link of Berry today and his recent poops:
imgur.com/a/7ICxxph

[Corvidophile]

Don’t bother on the bloodwork for adrenal, it’s an iffy diagnosis tool and very expensive, if you really think it’s adrenal use the implant based on symptoms. But I don’t, I think there’s something wrong with his gut. Have you tried switching foods for him? Give just the Orijen or just the Wysong for a few days and see if there’s any improvement? It’s possible to suddenly spring a food allergy at any time, unfortunately. With all the antibiotics he’s been through I don’t know if it’s a bacterial infection, it should have cleared up by this point. Make sure he stays hydrated and well fed, mix water into the food until it’s soupy and see if he’ll eat more that way. I’m sorry he’s not doing so well lately. ECE is also contagious, so it’s very likely if that’s what it was to have spread to your other ferrets.

[smolfert]

I was thinking of that. I know wysong is chicken based. The only reason I suspect adrenal somewhat because he has displayed increased aggression, and a small amount of mounting behavior towards one of the females. Would giving a non chicken, novel based protein be worth a try because of the ongoing diarrhea? (I.e. Orijen fish or Ziwipeak Lamb)

[Corvidophile]

Yes, it’s a good idea! And oh, I didn’t know those other facts about him. Usually adrenal doesn’t present with diarrhea but given the new info he might be developing that as well.

[unclejoe]

ECE is contagious, and it can also be tough to kill. That doesn't look like ECE poop to me. We had only one case of it of 30 ferrets, and I din't know why no one else got it, but that poop looked like the guts of a lime, it was that green.

[smolfert]

He does have liquid poops almost daily. This is an example where he is completely liquid. I don’t know what you make of this but it does variate from this type poop to the seedy light you see earlier. imgur.com/a/D3R9YdW
His poop is the complete liquid you see to the left side. It will variate from liquid back to seedy to half seedy normal then back to liquid.

[abbeytheferret6]

Here is something from someone who got permission from a vet on his suggestion. 
www.ferretsanonymous.com/medical/oma/sick.html

Do the baby food for a few days then grind or soak the ferret pellets--- just one of the brands as suggested by corvidophile until real soft and mashed up. it takes several minutes for (warm)water to soften kibble.

Even if you use ground kibble in coffee blender it soaks up water and gets dry and cakey. Thats why i kind of like it to sit and absorb the moisture for awhile and add water. Always worried it would get stuck in throat by not letting it sit and absorb the moisture for a few minutes.


lymphoma is a disease that causes diarrhea. None of my ferrets had it so i never really studied up on it, so I would not know what to tell u about that.

Do hope your baby gets to feeling better. 

Would nt give egg as he is so proned to diarrhea---it really does a number on my boy. I have got mine on mice, rats, and guinea pig because he would keep diarrhea, and he still gets it sometimes--- and I am clueless to what gives it to him. 

[miamiferret2]

Sounds like he may have IBD (common after they have ECE). could be a malabsorption issue that he's now having. ECE can come back. This is very common, unfortunately. You can try using something called "Kochi Free." One of mine had a mystery bug and nothing the vet prescribed worked, but I tried the Kochi Free as a last resort and it did the trick.

When you treat ECE, wash all bedding, cages, floors, etc. with hot water and use a detergent that has a disinfectant. It is contagious and you don't want it to keep coming back.

Sometimes after the ECE is done, it has caused damage to the intestines.
The intestines are basically scarred and they thicken. The most common sign is that they have liquid poops, seedy poops, diarrhea, stinky smelly greenish poops, bright yellow fish smelling poops, etc. I have seen IBD get so bad that the food just comes out the other end totally undigested because of the malabsorption problem. To help manage this, try adding some mercola pet digestive enzymes to food. switch him to moist diet (if kibble fed, make a gruel out of kibble). Add the enzymes about 30 minutes before serving the food. If you can switch to a raw diet, IBD is easier to manage because you can eliminate all grains and you can pinpoint which proteins are aggravating the issue. Usually, chicken is a protein that aggravates IBD. Corn and other grains can also be a trigger.

Another thing that has helped my ferrets with IBD is adding 1/4 capsule of the New Chapter Organics lifeshield reishi. It's called something else now I think. Host Defense is another good brand. This works well, but use pulse therapy. Use 2 weeks and take 2 weeks off. Otherwise, it loses it's effectiveness. Try feeding a food that has a bit of montmorillonite clay like Nature's Variety instinct raw. It is a commercial raw diet, but the clay helps with ferrets that have IBD. ,

Adrenal can aggravate IBD too. Actually, adrenal and IBD seem to hold hands. Sometimes if you treat the adrenal, the IBD symptoms will lessen significantly or the symptoms will resolve completely or for a time at least (until the tumors no longer respond to the implant). I think the deslorelin implant won't hurt (I implant my kits with deslorelin to prevent adrenal tumors), but vet needs to be certain that he's healthy enough to withstand the implant. If he is dehydrated from having diarrhea, you should get that under control first.