From:
Alicia
Date: 2001-04-13 20:43:26 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Re: Diazoxide and Mineral oil
questions
To: Twpfi@aol.com
From: Ferretwise
questions
Hello Dr Willard ,
The ferret we have rehabbed was and is still eating Totally Ferret
regular diet. iN FACT SINCE HE WAS ABLE TO FIRST EAT HARD FOOD--
IT WAS A BRED FERRET ADOPTED TO A FERRET FAMILIAR FAMILY WHO
RELOCATED.
The NJ vet told the people to liberally offer the mineral oil
they put it in a saucer with ferretone for a solid week- though it
may have been 10 days before they rushed the ferret from NJ to NH
for (the unnescessary ) surgery. The vet never ran any tests-
fecal, blood ,etc., nor did he run a barium xray-- all was based
on report of very small stool size. When the ferret was wasting
the owners assumed it was a blockage and drove the ferret to a
former vet who opened him up no blockage was located- they took
the left adrenal for good measure :( . He then went to another vet
who did run tests and wrote him off as unsalvageable due to
declining health-- but we proved that wrong. The last vet saw him
a month ago and called him the miracle ferret, when he saw the
animal was robust and healthy in appearance.
Due to the smaller digestive tract of the ferret and the liberal
application of mineral oil it did receive -- you don't think it
might have a more adverse reaction than with a horse?
I am puzzled that we would hear from a vet the first NH vet that
liberal use of mineral oil would cause the absorption problem when
there is no such cases.. -- and if it did not-- why would it take
so long to get from the wasting 14 oz sack of bones to a nearly
healthy state.?? Quite puzzled - more than before on this case.
alicia
at Ferret Wise
At 02:58 PM 4/13/01 -0400, you wrote:
Dear Alicia:
Mineral oil has been used in many vitamin and mineral premixes
as a means of
preventing the dust from being a problem during manufacturing of
animal feed.
Mineral oil is also the base of petroleum jellies and some of
the hair ball
treatments which use malt as the base. Mineral oil is totally
non digestible
by the animal as no animal has enzymes to break it down or
digest it. In
acts as regular fat in all other aspects in that it will absorb
fat soluble
vitamins (A, D3, E and K) and when analyzed in the finished food
will analyze
as fat.
Alicia, I know it is widely used in horses and many species as I
have
mentioned above but I have never heard of it reacting in the way
you
described. I would imagine it would have to be fed in very high
levels for a
long period of time to cause any type of problems as it is
metabolically
inert as I have said. Do you know if there was something else
mixed with the
mineral oil the ferret was fed? How much and for how long did
it receive
this? What food was the ferret eating?
Sincerely,
DR Tom Willard