ferret with IBD

Question
Hi,
I have a ferret that is about 4 years old. About a year and a half ago when we began the process of moving to Utah from Las Vegas his stool became very loose. SInce that time he has been to 3 vets and had any number of stool and blood tests to find the problem. Everything has come back negative. It seems to flare up any time he gets nervous and will last for weeks at a time. The most recent vet put him on a remedy of 2 anti-biotics (even though there is no foreign bodies), bismuth, and pednisone. The remedy helps temporarily, but at the same time it is very traumatic to my poor ferret Mojave because he has to receive the medicine forecefully twice a day because he hates them,
Can you suggest any dietary, or environment changes that I can make to hopefully minimize the occurrence of this problem? I hate to over medicate him and put him through the trauma of multiple medicines if there are alternatives.
I recently started him on Duck Soup, but so far I have to give it to him with a syringe because he will only take a few licks voluntarily. He doesn't mind the syringe, but doesn't like it either.
His appetite and water intake are perfectly normal, but unfortunately it goes through his system way to fast. His behavior is also normal unless he is going to the bathroom and then it really makes me sad because he whimpers by the end of the day if not on medication.
Any advice u could give me on managing his disorder would be greatly appreciated

Answer
Hi Jay:

So sorry to hear your little one isn't feeling well. I can relate all too well. I have a six year old with IBD who just went on pred yesterday after a battle with antibiotics and every anti-diarrhea medicine possible.  He was so mad at me from all the injections and oral meds that tasted nasty that he hardly wanted me to touch him anymore. It's so sad when they feel so bad and we have to do these things to make them feel better. I was actually to a point of being ready to put him to sleep because I was so sick of seeing him suffer so badly with all the meds.

My vet is great with ferrets! She started him on an injection of both Centrine and Prednisone; then 24 hours later he started on prednisone pills (cut into 1/4ths) and also a medicine called Centrine for nausea and diarrhea to take for the first week as he ramps up onto the pred.  I take both tiny pill pieces and squish them between two spoons until they are just powder. Then I dribble less than 1cc of Ferretone or Vivify (liquid vitamin supplements that ferrets LOVE) into the spoon and stir with the tuberculin syringe (needle removed, of course) and start drawing the Ferretone/pill mixture up into the syringe. Then I hunt up my little Gilbert and tell him it's time for his 'cookie juice'. He loves that, so he comes running to take his meds now :-)  I hold him on my lap and slowly depress the plunger as he licks the mixture from the syringe.  He takes this mixture AM and PM to start; after a week he will be down to once a week, then after another week he will be down to just the prednisone.

The diarrhea, which had been literally a 'spray' stopped after the initial injections; now here into the second day of pills, he is still holding with nice formed stools.  Hopefully you have a vet you can just print this out and take it with you to him/her and save lots of trial and error - at least in our case, this was an immediate fix to a situation that seemed so very frustrating. Believe me, I feel your pain and hope you can get some relief for him, and for you, soon!  I shall keep both him and you in my thoughts and prayers - get that little guy to a vet for an two injections and some meds to followup with.   Best of luck!

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers