Tummy Issues

[rachelc]

Since October 2021, my senior boy has been having issues. It started with scratching the cage floor constantly and pawing at his mouth and drooling excessively. All his vets (numerous ones) told me is he has ulcers and treated him for ulcers. He was diagnosed with heart disease in November 2021. The pawing at the mouth and drooling would come and go. Sometimes he would do it everyday for a week then he would stop for a month, but then start doing it again. BG was always normal. Over 100. Around 110. Bloodwork always came back good. Starting in January of this year, he started losing weight. He turned 7 in February. He has lost one pound in a month. Some days he doesn’t want to eat at all. Other days he devours everything. One of his vets now wants to do biopsies on his stomach, intestines, liver, and lymph nodes. She said on ultrasound, she saw some enlarged lymph nodes and slight thickening of the intestinal wall but nothing too alarming. I told her no on the surgery. He is 7!! This should have been done two years ago. What she said it could be is either eosinophilic gastroenteritis, IBD, or lymphoma. My question is I didn’t think raw fed ferrets were as susceptible to these? He did have ECE pretty bad back in 2017. I asked her if that would have caused any of this and she said no. He has diarrhea on most days. I know I need to do an elimination diet, but the one food that would be best for him, he has always hated. Lamb. He eats everything else, though. Chicken and rabbit and quail are his favorites. I do take him to the vet and have spent over $4,000 since January. I am just at a loss what to do for him at this point. He refuses lamb and I don’t think surgery is a good option for him. I feel I would be paying for a $1300 euthanasia.

[Corvidophile]

I wouldn’t opt for surgery at his age either. He could have multiple organ failures at his age, obfuscating the results. I’m sorry you’re having such troubles diagnosing him. The sad truth is that you may be chasing after one issue when there’s a bigger one looming, like the lymphoma. I would look for an elevated white blood cell count rather than spend the money biopsying. Perhaps prednisolone, which will slow multiple cancers down. Which ulcer treatments have you tried so far? What style do you feed him? An elimination trial would definitely be helpful to see if it’s as simple as a food allergy.

[rachelc]

Here are his blood chemistry readings and the ranges listed. Sorry this is so long…
RBC: 11.34 (L) 6.35-11.20
Hemoglobin: 18.3 (H) 11.0-17.0
MCV: 44.5 (L) 45.0-55.0
MCHC: 36.2 (H) 32.0-35.0
Reticulocytes: 121.3 (H) 0.0-60.0
Neutrophils: 3.40 (H) 0.62-3.30
Lymphocytes: 0.94 (L) 1.00-8.00
Eosinophils: 0.08 (L) 0.10-0.60
Basophils: 0.12 (H) 0.00-0.10
Platelets: 16 (L) 270-880
Total Protein: 7.8 (H) 5.2-7.3
Globulin: 4.7 (H) 1.8-3.1
He also had his lipase run at a different lab several months ago. That came back at 521 which the vet said is very high.

[rachelc]

He is on famotidine and Carafate. He is also on heart meds and the vet said it wouldn’t be a good idea to put him on pred. He eats raw but I blend it into soup form for him now.

[Sherry Stone]

What are his stools like? I know of several raw fed ferrets with IBD. You can use supplements to keep it under control. holisticferretforum.com/health/irritable-bowel-disease-ibd/

[rachelc]

He has diarrhea most days. I can’t get any vets to agree that it might be something other than an ulcer. I have taken him to 4 different vets. Only one suggested the lipase test which came back high. His blood chemistry panel was run last month. His regular vet said that she didn’t see anything too concerning on his ultrasound. She did say that his heart and lungs look great so we are keeping that under control with his meds. I know at 7 he isn’t going to act like he did when he was 2, but I have a video of him on January 5. He was running and playing and jumping on things. He weighed 3 lbs 6 oz. A month later, it was a complete turnaround. He started sleeping all the time. Not wanting to play. He now weighs 2 lbs 5 oz. Then his vet throws the surgery suggestion at me. I know a lady that almost lost her 3-year-old ferret having the same surgery! With the same vet!! I just wish I could get him to eat lamb. He has always hated it. I tried sneaking it in his food once and he literally gagged. LOL I told him he’s so dramatic.

[Sherry Stone]

That does sound like IBD. I would do a strict elimination diet, and keep a food diary. holisticferretforum.com/health/irritable-bowel-disease-ibd/protein-trial-elimination-diet-for-ferrets-raw-diet/
holisticferretforum.com/health/irritable-bowel-disease-ibd/ibd-journal/

[rachelc]

I bought some S&C lamb and ZiwiPeak air-dried lamb. I re-hydrated the S&C and soaked the ZiwiPeak then blended it. I mixed a little in with his rabbit soup and he ate it!!

[rachelc]

Also, I have ordered raw lamb. Just haven’t received it.

[Sherry Stone]

I would keep him on the one protein(only feed the FDR rehydrated) for at least a week, preferably two so his digestive tract has time to heal and the diarrhea stops. Once that happens, then you can introduce a different protein. And just an FYI- it will take a bit to discover how fast or slow you will need to go to introduce each protein. Some ferrets do better with a direct switch, some will take a few days. IE you feed lamb this week, change to rabbit next and he does fine. A different ferret may need to have the rabbit slowly blended into the lamb over a few days until it is all rabbit.