From:
Shelley Knudsen
Date: 2002-04-23 14:50:00 UTC
Subject: Re: IBD treatments - giving medications to unwilling
ferrets
Hello,
I'm afraid I can't offer any advice regarding the Imuron, as I
don't have any experience with that. However, in regards to
giving medications, I thought I would throw in my 2 cents. I
too have a ferret who has been on many different meds, he did
okay with the various antibiotics (amoxicillin, trimeth-sulfa,
and cefadroxil), theophylline, and the pred originially. He
wasn't fond of them, but he would take them. However, when he
had to be on enrofloxacin for a month, he detested that so
much that now he will not take his pred or diazoxide from a
syringe at all without major drooling, gagging, fighting,
urinating/defecating, you name it, on his part. He doesn't
want anything from a syringe, not even linatone. Just the
sight of it starts him gagging.
So, I have solved that problem by mixing his meds in with a
small amount of food, and making sure he eats it all. What I
do is to mix up about a tablespoon full of half a/d and half
chicken baby food, and microwave for about 9 seconds. I then
add his two current meds to it, and mix it very thoroughly.
He doesn't seem to taste the meds enough to keep him from
eating the food, and I don't let him down until he completely
finishes the mixture. This occasionally requires me holding
him in mid-air with the plate or spoon held up to his mouth
until he finally licks it all off in frustration, but he does
eat it all, and it has resulted in much less stress on both
him and me when it comes to medicines. It also helps if he
hasn't eaten for a few hours before I give him the mixture.
Of course this would all depend on the ferret being willing to
eat the mixture in the first place, so if he isn't eating, it
wouldn't help much.
Anyway, hope that is of some benefit.
Dooks to your fuzzies,
Shelley Knudsen
Class of 2004 KSU Veterinary College
ferrets@kansas.net sknudsen@vet.ksu.edu
http://www.tcgcs.com/~ferrets
785-565-9041 cel402-984-4217
"There ain't no limit in this life to how far you can get,
but if you're going all the way, you gotta break a sweat."
- Chad Brock