From:
Christine Bertch
Date: 2001-03-23 21:57:00 UTC
Subject: Nutrition and Adrenal questions
Hello all,
I have a couple of questions about my ferret, Benji. First a quick
history. He is nearly 8 years old, has borderline insulinoma (has always
had a BG at about 80) for which he gets .3cc Prednisone BID, and has been
getting this for about 1.5 years now. He does well at this dose and has
never had a seizure that I know of. He will only eat the liquid diet I've
made up for him (fed 4x daily).
First I have noticed recently that his nails are growing oddly--the
best way I can describe it is that they are more narrow (but not thin or
brittle). I have also noticed that he has a yellow tinge to his fur (not
his skin) especially on his face and down the middle of his back. Could
these things be due to a nutritional imbalance? His diet is a combination
of: water, chicken baby food, A/D, Select Care Feline Development canned,
8-1 Ferret canned food, and a very small amount of Nutri Cal. He gets a
total of 100 cc's a day.
His stool often is barely formed, very runny. I did have a stool
sample analyzed not too long ago--negative for parasites, diagnosed with
colitis (he was straining, had mucosy poop sometimes with just a tinge of
blood). He doesn't have the straining symptoms or any blood in the stool
anymore, though it at times is quite mucosy.
Next, his back feet are hairless on the bottoms and the hair on top
is thinning quite a bit. He has lost hair on the lower part of his belly
and has slight thinning of hair bilaterally on his back end and tail, but
not much. Could this be adrenal, or possibly also a nutritional imbalance,
or perhaps due to his weight? He is not quite 3 pounds, does have a little
pred belly, and is not too active (he does not seem to have any difficulty
getting around).
I just want to make sure what I am feeding has what he needs in the
right amount, and if I should consider adrenal disease as a possibility.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Christine and Benji