diarrhea

[jon]

Not the best subject, but we seem to have running bouts of it. There are 13 in the business, and it seems like *someone* always has the runs. They've all been on raw food for several months now, and their bowls/cage are cleaned twice daily.

Any clues as to what might be the underlying cause?

Any suggestions for a cure? (or at least something for the symptom?) - It passes after a day or two, but then someone else seems to get it.

[Heather]

You could try a stool sample to rule out bacterial infection, but I might look a little closer to what is being eaten and see if there is a correlation between what is being consumed and if it's directly related to diet. I find that I get a running bout of poops if gibblets are on the diet (not everyone but it happens with a few), I have a couple of IBD fuzzies, so they have their own schedule of loose, slimy poops, if my bone amounts aren't quite right (too much meat). It could be any number of things. When you have 13, there's always something cooking . I look at general health and if it's over a matter of a couple of days. If it's only once or twice during the day then I look that there was probably an imbalance of some sort. I would try giving them some pumpkin and seeing if that helps at all. I know that I've had less loose poops since adding a bit of veggie matter to my fuzzies diet. It doesn't have to be pumpkin but it's convenient and is soothing for an upset stomach and still offers something for the gut bacterias to feed off of.
ciao

[1]

Mar 19, 2010 23:51:50 GMT -5 Heather said:

You could try a stool sample to rule out bacterial infection, but I might look a little closer to what is being eaten and see if there is a correlation between what is being consumed and if it's directly related to diet. I find that I get a running bout of poops if gibblets are on the diet (not everyone but it happens with a few), I have a couple of IBD fuzzies, so they have their own schedule of loose, slimy poops, if my bone amounts aren't quite right (too much meat). It could be any number of things. When you have 13, there's always something cooking . I look at general health and if it's over a matter of a couple of days. If it's only once or twice during the day then I look that there was probably an imbalance of some sort. I would try giving them some pumpkin and seeing if that helps at all. I know that I've had less loose poops since adding a bit of veggie matter to my fuzzies diet. It doesn't have to be pumpkin but it's convenient and is soothing for an upset stomach and still offers something for the gut bacterias to feed off of.
ciao

I get it, kinda like a dog eating grass! It keeps their stumic cargo in as long as its supposed to be aye!

[Heather]

A very close analogy I think you understand where I'm coming from "1"
ciao

[1]

Mar 20, 2010 21:40:36 GMT -5 Heather said:

A very close analogy I think you understand where I'm coming from "1"
ciao

I only call my sailth that becase I was haveing trobble regestering! It was the easyest thing the regester paper would take! You see, it said "letters 1 or 17" I think it was, so I chose 1

[jon]

Heather,

We have a couple that are more than likely IBD - they are doing better on the raw diet for the most part. Great idea on the pumpkin! I tried to find it in baby food, but no go. I did find butternut squash baby food, and we gave that a try tonight - 10 out of 13 seemed to like it - one it crazy for it. We gave those who would eat it a baby-teaspoon. I'll try pumpkin in a couple of days.

The bone ratio is a problem. They love chicken, and I go through quite a few whole chickens. They also like pork, but the pork neck bones are too hard for them, and the pork steaks (which they love), have very little bone, and too much fat (IMO). I was finally able to get them to eat some turkey thigh yesterday (so far, it is not well liked). Lamb, veal, and beef are obviously made of poison, so nobody will tough them. We did sneak in two chopped up mice last week - they ate 75% of them (not big on skulls and tails).

Mar 19, 2010 23:51:50 GMT -5 Heather said:

You could try a stool sample to rule out bacterial infection, but I might look a little closer to what is being eaten and see if there is a correlation between what is being consumed and if it's directly related to diet. I find that I get a running bout of poops if gibblets are on the diet (not everyone but it happens with a few), I have a couple of IBD fuzzies, so they have their own schedule of loose, slimy poops, if my bone amounts aren't quite right (too much meat). It could be any number of things. When you have 13, there's always something cooking . I look at general health and if it's over a matter of a couple of days. If it's only once or twice during the day then I look that there was probably an imbalance of some sort. I would try giving them some pumpkin and seeing if that helps at all. I know that I've had less loose poops since adding a bit of veggie matter to my fuzzies diet. It doesn't have to be pumpkin but it's convenient and is soothing for an upset stomach and still offers something for the gut bacterias to feed off of.
ciao

[Heather]

I have a couple with IBD. They require some work Each one is an individual and will have different triggers (or at least mine do). I don't feed pork bone but if I feed say a meal of cubed pork, then the next meal will be chicken bone of some sort. The same goes for turkey (only a couple of my guys will eat that). Have you tried quail? I use quail quarters and my guys love them. Small rabbits are also eaten easily. Some of my guys like beef but the beef, venison and bison that I get are commercial ground which comes with bone organ and some veggie matter in the patty. One thing that I've found that adding pumpkin or squash on a regular basis, seems to ease the IBD attacks that are suffered by my guys. You can use regular canned pumpkin or cook the pumpkin (hard to find at this time of year) and squash yourself. I've come to a point that everyone gets some veggie matter every day. It doesn't harm the healthy ones and benefits the ones with the tummy upsets. It has been suggested that the veggie matter though not physically used or absorbed by the ferret creates the same benefit as fur. Possibly slowing down digestion a bit thus allowing better absorbsion of nutrients from their meat diet. A huge benefit by our IBD guys. Ghenghis appears to be worse in the evening while stools are regular first thing in the morning, becoming very liquid and foul smelling by evening. He's more susceptible to having attacks with red meats but it's not consistent enough to be classified as an allergy and to illiminate it from his diet.
ciao