Diarrhea (single incidence)

Question
while i was cleaning out my ferrets(jerome) litter box, i noticed his poop was a little runny. i feed him marshall brand food, and sheppard and greene treats. he has access to food 24/7 and i only feed him about 6 treats a day. he's been acting pretty normal and doesn't seem to stressed. any idea whats wrong??

thanks!!!

Answer
Hi Kyle:

Jerome - what a neat (and different!) name for a ferret! He must have an awesome personality to qualify for such a unique name! :-)

Ferrets can get a little (single incidence) diarrhea now and then for seemingly no reason.  I don't worry until I see my kids do more than one bad poop, UNLESS it was reeeally stinky or unusually colored, bloody or otherwise indicative of a more serious problem.

I think that six treats a day is just a bit excessive. Unless the treats are pure chicken. There are several treats on the market that are dehydrated chicken pieces and my ferret loves them. I let him have as much of this as possible (and keep a FRESH bowl of water close too cuz all that 'dehydrated' can dry a guy's mouth out!) because chicken is a good ferret diet in itself.  I think ideally our ferrets don't know one "treat" from another - to them a treat is anything we give them by hand.  So, if we give them *healthy* things by hand rather than the 'not as good for him as the food he eats', then we can feel good in more ways then one when they take the treat from our hands.

Anytime I see any problem with poops, I like to mention to people to be SURE to do regular treatments for hairballs. I have a ferret who had to have surgery for a hairball last year. I have had this ferret since he was a tiny kit and my house is very ferretproofed, neat and tidy, and I watch the kids closely when they are out to play.  He started having skinny poops and I was ready to take him to the vet...but a friend of mine has cats recommended that I try a product called "Vetasyl". Cut & paste into your address line to locate the best deals available for both Vetasyl AND Uncle Jim's:

VETASYL:   http://www1.shopping.com/xFS?KW=vetasyl&CLT=SCH

UNCLE JIM'S DUK SOUP MIX: http://www1.shopping.com/xFS?KW=Uncle+Jim%27s+Duk+Soup+Mix&CLT=SCH

Vetasyl is a safe bulk product made of psyllium and barley that absorbs liquids as it travels thru the digestive system and works like Metamucil works for people.  I gave him the CONTENTS OF ONE VETASYL CAPSULE (toss the cap itself away) blended into 6-OZ OF VERY WARM WATER and TWO LEVEL TEASPOONS of Uncle Jim's Duk Soup Mix (by Marshalls and available at pet stores or online pet supply stores).  I let him eat all he wanted...and he ate all 6 oz of it!

I repeated this and fed him 'lax soup' ONCE A DAY FOR THREE DAYS IN A ROW.  The first two days he passed a few small hairballs here and there, not enough to explain the tiny poops I had been seeing.  However, on the third day I gave the lax, he passed a hairball the size and shape of my little finger!!  It had some green pus on one end of it, so no doubt he was very very close to having a very very serious problem - but it was averted!  

Since then, I have been giving the 'soup lax' treatment about once every two weeks. I make up the soup at bedtime and he goes to bed with a tummy full of warm soup.  By morning when I check the litterbox, I often find little hairballs that he has passed in his poops.  The first time, for the initial 'clean-out', give it for three days in a row to be sure everything is out, but subsequent treatments can be just one feeding of the 'soup' every couple of weeks.  

My large male ferret eats the whole 6 oz of soup. Smaller ferrets may eat less, but they should eat at least 1/2 of the mixture in order to be effective. The secret is in giving it with enough fluids so that it can swell up in the intestines and move whatever it finds in its path out.  You can get your ferret familiar with Uncle Jim's Duk Soup - it's a treat to my kids - they LOVE it and if you use 2 level teaspoons in 6-oz of warm water and the contents of one Vetasyl capsule, the proportions are just about perfect!  Initially you may have to dip your finger in it, then into their mouth until they develop a taste for it and eat it readily.  I haven't seen a ferret yet who doesn't love Uncle Jim's, so it is perfect for this....and MUCH healthier for our ferrets than the sugary vaseline laxatives we have given for years (and they don't work as well as Vetasyl!).

Hopefully Jerome won't have anymore problems with diarrhea, but if he's a normal ferret, he will have one now and then. Only worry if he has more than one; a single incidence of diarrhea USUALLY is not too concerning, but it does put the good ferret owner on 'alert', just as you are. :-)   Best of luck - let's hope Jerome will be fine from here on!

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers