Seedy poop every hour almost on the dot

[Kindi]

My girl, Aria, has been for the most part pooping seedy piles almost exactly every 60 minutes since Saturday night. It comes out all at once and is audible like a wet fart. When I first noticed she had the seedy poop, I gave her duk soup that night. I also gave her some Sunday. I did not give her any on Monday but did give her a bit of ferretlax after she pooped around 10pm and it had some plastic grocery bag bits. Normally she likes to just stash the bags and I check them regularly for tears but I guess this time she ingested some. I had her out to play extra on Monday in addition to afternoon/evening play time to make sure she still had energy, moved around, and ate as this was my telework day and I could monitor her closely. I separated her from my other 2 girls that night, sometimes she likes alone time and is just stressed. After that poop at 10pm through when I went to work around 630am Tuesday her poops were finally every 3-4 hours but still seedy blobs. It seemed to take her a normal amount of time rather than blasting out of her but still mush. I gave her duk soup again but with more water for extra hydration. At play time last night (tues) around 8pm through at least 2am this morning (weds) she had poops every hour again that are seedy blobs. She hasn't played with the other 2 girls but again sometimes she just likes to go off and do her own thing, be independent. She did play in her own way, still has her strength and energy and was climbing up me to get on my bed. She still eats and drinks water. Not lethargic and not throwing up. My local vet that sees exotics is very limited in knowledge and capability. For a previous issue 3 years ago where she threw up they took an xray, saw nothing, prescribed a general antibiotic for a week and told me to get and give her some pesto bismol. She was too stressed and wouldn't stay still for them to give her fluids. The closest actual exotic vet is 3 hours away. I don't want to put her through added unnecessary stress but I also don't want to not catch it if there is something serious. She has had seedy poo before bit usually bounces back sooner and pooping on the hour is unusual and I can't find anything about it. My s/o isn't as concerned becasue she acta normal otherwise and hasn't lost weight (1lb 5oz for at least the past 2.5yrs). Could I be overreacting? Am I making it worse? I haven't tried pumpkin yet and am debating which vet to maybe call.

[Kindi]

Update: Found that my normal vet moved to a different animal hospital. My call went to voicemail so I am waiting for a call back. Also worth adding that I don't feel anything hard in her belly area and no gas build up. No red, green, or tarry stools. It is light brown. I understand from browsing posts this group is the opposite of fond of Marshall's premium food/kibble. That's what they were eating and they haven't cared to switch to anything else. I asked about a whole prey diet at the Avian & Exotic Animal Hospital where I lived at the time and the vet advised that it would be too difficult to ensure I could access all the ingredients and ensure the proper nutrition. She and her colleagues are or at the time (2018) were part of research with a preventative implant for insulinoma so I took her word. I did try a few things - cut up chicken, whole mouse/whole rat (i have frozen thaw for my snakes), wysong, but my girl has never been interested in anything else.

[Corvidophile]

So no diet changes aside from giving duk soup after it started, just the same kibble? Sounds like she ate something she shouldn’t’ve or caught a small bit of food poisoning from something. Could’ve come in on your shoe. You should definitely try pumpkin after seeing plastic in her stool, she needs fiber to push it out all the way, and if you’re unlucky, blockage-removing surgery. Stop the ferretlax, she’s already having regular movements. Keep at it with the duk soup for hydration, and if possible switch her to wetted kibble to help.

[kindicane]

Correct, no other diet changes. I did only give the ferretlax the one time so I will be sure not to again. Thank you! I'll try the wetted food and pumpkin tonight. I was able to get an appointment for tomorrow but it isn't until 1130.

She's eaten things before, when I was learning just how sneaky she is. She passed them fine and on a normal poop schedule. Not that I'm ever any less worried of potential blockage - I try to be super conscious of what she can get to as she gets to way more places than my other 2. The hourly poo really thew me off. So I will update in case anyone else googles in the future.

[unclejoe]

Hi and welcome to HFF.
Pooping is a good thing so I'm not so concerned about blockage. It seems more like a digestive issue, a possible imbalance of gut flora. Seedy poops tend to indicate undigested fats. It could be an enzyme deficiency.

As far as blockages: I don't want to panic anyone, but they can occur. My best buddy Scamp manages to chew up a rubber ear plug and pass them on 2 separate occasions. On the third incident, we found what we thaought was a whole earplug worth of bits in his poop but we were wrong. He had emergency surgery and a partial resection of his small intestine, but he never recovered. the vet said the piece that was left was the size of a grain of rice, but it got wedges in a turn and part of the intestine died. The person responsible for leaving the earplug where Scamp, a real athlete of a ferret, could get to it in under a minute, after 2 prior occurrences, no longer lives here.

[kindicane]

Thank you for the welcome! I wish I would have found this forum sooner, like 4 years ago!

Those were my thoughts, that pooping is good. I've been trying to feed her pumpkin tonight just in case. She's allowed me to give her about half a tablespoon so far. She's not a fan. Do you have any other suggestions to help with the gut flora? I was thinking and hoping the duk soup would help as it has the lactobacillus acidophilus.

Tonight she isn't interested in playing either. But 1. She has always gotten bored easy and always needs new things to get excited. New toys are on their way. And 2. I can only imagine how tired she must be pooping loose stools every hour. She's appeased me and played the past few days. She has gotten excited when she thought I had plastic bags. I can confirm she still isn't acting lethargic.

I can't blame you there. I keep close watch on what enters and is placed where in our room, the ferret proof place in our house. I've had my own learning incidents and some from younger family members.

[kindicane]

Update for anyone else in the future. Nothing came out or changed with giving her pumpkin. She was prescribed metronidazole, amoxicilin, and pepto bismol for 7-10 days. If this doesn't help then the next step sounds like ultrasounds to make sure it isn't any sort of endocrine issue. She did lose tail fur, 2 of my 3 ferrets did. I explained to the vet that it didn't start at the base of the tail, I cleaned it regularly with ferret shampoo and a soft child toothbrush and the fur has been slowly growing back. It's the undercoat not the guard furs. So he agrees it probably isn't a sign but wants to monitor it.

[unclejoe]

How did the vet appt go? I would stop the pumpkin, since she has no trouble pooping. The duk soup should help, but it might take a few servings.

[kindicane]

Update:
5 days of the 2 doses/day metronidazole, amoxicilan, and pepto so far. She got pep to her step 4hrs after her first dose Thursday night.bi assume she got a solid bit of sleep and the pepto helped her tummy. Saturday night her poos were hourly from medicine dose to next poo. The next 1hr 40 min later, then gradually moved to 3+ hrs. It seems to go this way after each dose. It is still seedy and just a puddle. It sounds like she's peeing out of her butt. She's been eating, drinking, and playing otherwise. She's remained her strong willed self doing what she wants. She doesn't play with the other two, maybe because they're separated other than play time? In general she's mostly independent and likes to do her own thing but does play with the other two.

[unclejoe]

I'm surprised that combo doesn't seem to have helped much.

[kindicane]

I would have hoped it would have. The vet requested a fecal sample to send off for testing. I'm glad it isn't the case but I would think at this point I'd have seen symptoms in my other two girls.

[unclejoe]

I assumed a fecal sample would have been done Visit 1. Did the vet suggest it then?  
I had 2 adrenal ferrets that lost fur first in the chest area.  Every ferret that had rat tail (3 more) had adrenal.  Not every ferret will get adrenal disease but rat tail is a strong indicator, in my opinion.  So definitely keep monitoring it and looking for other signs.

[kindicane]

No, she went while we were at the first visit and I offered a fecal sample. Vet wanted to try antibiotics first. He said in 10yrs he'd never sent out a fecal sample and he started with antibiotics first. Where we live it has to be sent out and he said price wise it is way more expensive than if we could do it in house. I dropped it off yesterday so hopefully we'll hear back soon. 🥺 will definitely continue to monitor. Her and one of my other girls both shed their tail undercoat looking furs at the same time. Both have also started to grow back, just slowly.

[unclejoe]

Oh, so it's not rat tail then. I guess you do what you can. Hope it's easily treatable

[kindicane]

I hope so too. I've been highly anxious this whole time. I'm either freaking out/over reacting or something else is wrong. Or maybe the antibiotics are just taking a toll. Sunday morning will be the last of the 10 days every 12hrs of metronidazole, amoxicilan, and pepto. It's very unlike her to not go in her litter box while in the cage. She had some strewn diarrhea and pee in an area not her litterbox. After her food and antibiotics today she was either just really tired or wobbly. She ran circles around the room, backed onto potty areas a few times and nothing. I put her in her cage to see if she had to potty there. She walked circles around the cage too not trying to get anywhere and eventually her hammock. Let her out shortly after as it is normal playtime. She went around the room a few times then found a hammock she doesn't usually go to that I have set up under the cage and just wants to sleep. I did put some duk soup with her food that I wet today and made it more watery. I'm used to my pup doing poop circles but do ferrets do this?