Blockages in Ferrets

Blockages in ferrets can be lethal.

As I have already said, do not have any objects lying around the house which your ferret can chew on. Read about our Snoopy and how much it cost to get that olive pit out of her!! It just goes to show that different ferrets have different habits, so never get complacent.

Here’s a picture of an olive pit – look and be amazed that something so small can cause such so much trouble in a ferret’s gut!

You can see Snoopy's X-rays here, showing a very distended stomach caused by the build up of gas when the olive pit blocked her gut!

Blockages can be caused by a number of things, some of which are:

• Foam rubber from ear plugs, etc
• Rubber from erasers, etc
• PVC – chewed off soft toys, etc
• Balloons
• Material from T-shirts, etc
• Styrofoam peanuts
• Hairballs
• Olives and other small stone fruit

My old gang of ferrets didn’t seem to have any interest in rubbery things, thank goodness, but they are like magnets to my present crew!  

Kimiko loves to chew the little plastic nose pads on our glasses, as you can see from this photo...

I doubt that the little piece she bit off my nose pad but one of the pads from my husband’s glasses is missing.  Did Kimiko swallow that or did it get vacuumed up? Just to be safe, I gave her some hairball laxative to encourage a good bowel movement

Pens, especially those with a rubber grip, can be very dangerous, as you can see from this picture ....

And we’ve all heard about ferrets stealing the remote! Stealing it is fine, as long as you find it again, however do take care that the buttons aren't missing when you find the remote - LOL!

I had to pull out the hairball laxative again when I saw the right arrow was missing.  There was no evidence in the litter tray to show that Kimiko swallowed it so I’m hoping it got sucked up in the vacuum cleaner.  I was so hoping I’d fine it so we could use the remote properly but, alas, to no avail  

Keep an eye out for some of the following symptoms if you suspect your ferret has a blockage:

Skinny poop

Greenish poop

Lethargy

Vomiting

Lack of appetite

No bowel movement

Distended stomach

Teeth grinding

Dehydration

Take your ferret to the vet immediately, if you suspect anything wrong because if you wait, it might be too late.

You can read more on Blockages in ferrets on these sites ...

Gastrointestinal Obstruction in Ferrets (Pet Care Veterinary Hospital)

Ferrets - GI Foreign Bodies (Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital)

Gastrointestinal Foreign Bodies in Ferrets by Heidi L. Hoefer, DVM, Dip ABVP

Stomach blockage in ferrets: Symptoms and treatments by Angela Pollock

Sick ferret - intestinal blockage

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