From:
ferretsonly@hotmail.com
Date: 2002-08-17 15:55:20 UTC
Subject: RE: How do you express?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <16008761.1029599720056.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Author wrote:
> My fuzzy Boozer seems to be having problems going potty
Mary,
Be sure to talk to your vet about the medical cause for this. The most likely source of the problem is an enlarged prostrate caused by adrenal disease. That said...
I've been expressing Alex for what seems like his whole life but is really 2-3 years. He is paralyzed and also has no bowel control.
TLE's advice is, as usual, sound. Here's some other stuff I've found:
I have found the easiest thing is to approach females from the front and males from the back. Having a vet book show you the plumbing helps a lot. For the females, I just squeeze their bladder against their backbone. It's really easy. Males are a different story.
I always express over the bathroom sink since I couldn't see what I was doing otherwise. Now I look in the mirror and work from the reflected image.
I express 4-6 times daily. If I let Alex go longer, the balloon is too big and he's tense making it darn near impossible to express him. I'm strong but even so, my hand gets tired because their bladder is tough. It can take about 5 minutes to do this depending on how tense and full the ferret is. Be sure to be relaxed so your stress doesn't transfer to the ferret.
In the time I've been doing Alex, he's gotten infections a couple times. This can happen if you don't express fully or don't do them often enough. Watch the urine stream for signs of blood or darkness. Alex responds best to Baytril.
Occasionaly and especially at first, Alex wouldn't relax enough to pee him. I got a prescription of Valium from my vet and gave him a tiny dose. I also found that filling the sink with warm water and actually peeing him in the water made it easier at times.
Caverats: It's impossible to control the direction of the squirt when you pee the male. Don't let it get in the tray that holds the mirror. This will cause the mirror to crack. Oh yeah. Make sure to run water into the sink afterwards lest the urine STINK!
Hope this helps.
-Carla