Monday, March 8, 2010

The Ferret and the Disposable Diaper

james_of_jessie1      Most of you by now know that James has a plastic bag addiction and has to be in any kind of plastic bag and will work hard at removing what is in the plastic bag. This last week was a scary one for me.

     Disposable diapers come in plastic wrapping that has a perforated area to open it. Which would have been all right if that is what James had used to enter into the bag. He didn’t he chewed his way in and in the process ingested bits of the diapers he tried to remove from the bag. It may be that he only got small amounts of the fluff in his intestinal tract that kept him from needing surgery.

     James wasn’t acting like his normal self but didn’t seem to be sick or hurt. Picking him up to give him some loving I noticed that he had a slight bulge on one side. It wasn’t hard and he didn’t seem to be in pain and being the weekend I had to wait for Monday to take him to his vet. I would’ve normally given him some Ferret Lax® to help him pass whatever he had ingested but I was out of it and on Sundays there isn’t  much open around here.

     Thankfully, I remembered that  Kevin Fitzgerald of Animal Planet's Emergency Vets used a small amount of peanut butter with a ferret that had ingested an eraser with good results. I gave James a small amount of peanut butter that he licked off the spoon.

     I watched him and made sure he was eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom. He did all of this with no problems. The only thing that he didn’t want to do was run around too much. I kept checking to see where the bulge was. The first one moved through his intestines but was soon followed by several others.

     I was glad when Monday finally got here and was able to take him to the vet. An ultrasound revealed that he had several small blockages that were moving towards the rear.

     Because he was eating, drinking, pooping it was decided that he would come home and see if whatever it was would pass on its own in a day along with giving him an inch ribbon of Ferret Lax® twice a day. By Monday night, James had passed a large amount of shiny stool with granules in it. I recognized the granules as gel from the fluff of disposable diapers.

    I don’t know what the fluff is made of but it seems to be non-toxic and James has passed almost all of it out of his system. I am grateful that this ended in the best way and reminded me just how determined a ferret can be about getting into something.

     Needless to say diaper bags, disposable diapers, and any other type of bag plastic or not is not allowed on the floor where James can get to it.

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