Message Number: YG12001 | New FHL Archives Search
From: pjdutche
Date: 2002-03-22 11:59:00 UTC
Subject: Re: hairballs

--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "sue" <ferret@i...> wrote:
> Okay, I have a stupid question, I've heard that pineapple/pineapple
> juice or papaya will break down hairballs in rabbits. so I'm
>wondering if this would work for ferrets.

Sue, I've pondered that in the past as well. What I recall from
previous attempts to find out is that rabbit hairballs and ferret
hairballs are different animals, and there is no reason to believe
that this would work on the kind ferrets get. Rabbit hairballs are
all bound together by some kind of protein matrix, while ferret
hairballs are just tightly compressed hair. Or something like that.
Anyway, the enzyme that may work to break down the binder in rabbit
hairballs cannot break down hair itself, and so it probably won't do
anything for a ferret hairball. I'm not a vet, and I can't say that
this is authoritative, though. Hey, here's a rabbit-person website
that has a bit about this:

http://members.aol.com/bcwooly/hairballs.html

> Many of my guys will not take the hairball remedies out there.

Most of mine don't like them either; plus I have a "house of
insulinoma," and I don't like the sweetness of most of those
remedies. Somewhere, probably on this list, I picked up a good trick
for those ferrets that like Ferretone. Mix vaseline up with some
ferretone, and most of them down the glop like there is no tomorrow.
Vaseline is just petroleum jelly, which is actually what does the job
in many of the ferret hairball remedies. Seems to work well.

Good luck,

-Pam S.