From:
celebrielkd@hotmail.com
Date: 2003-04-22 17:13:22 UTC
Subject: Can anyone help?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <6158647.1051031602767.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Hi:
Am new here and have a dilemna with my little furrball.
My son brought Oddball home to us in Oct. of 2001, a friend had not checked with his parents before purchasing her. Anyhow, as is the norm with kids, she became my furrball. Being a Cat person ( currently have 9 ) i didn't know to much about ferrets except they were of the weasel family. So i didn't question it when the boy told me she ate Honeycomb cereal and Peanut butter during the day, with ferret food in her cage at night. I did think it was a bad habit to have gotten her into but didn't know how bad.
Then i purchased a handbook, and panicked! It had been a while since she had eaten any of the ferret food, and now i was reading how absolutly imperative it is for them to eat meat products! Okay, it was time too change the diet. Let me tell you, she is one stubborn little cuss!
She refused to eat anything with even a hint of meat in it --- if stuck her nose up at fresh cooked meat of the table! I have tried Ferret foods, any i could find, even resorted to Cat foods, since she had shown a liking for it when first brought home, no dice, Finally, in desperation, i decided to hide soft catfood in with her spoon of peanut butter ( which also alleviated my concerns for choking) and it worked, have finally gotten it up to even proportions. and have added ferretvite for good measure --- she loves it but will not give up her cereal addiction and will not eat dried ferret food
So i accepted the fact that this was going to be a slow a tedious process, then the problems started. her belly swelled, she stopped defecating as much as usual and was straining, off to the vet ----- he x-rayed, ultrasounded, urine tested, blood tested,but nothing, no blockage, no tumors, no infections, nothing he could find. If it weren't for the discharge, and the redness of her belly, and the fact she was not pooping, he said he would call her fat! instead he prescribed a daily dose of ferretlax and to give her time to adjust to the diet.
Well, Oddball, never lost her energy nor her appetite but sometimes her belly is so swollen it interferes with her walking, and she bites if you touch her belly, so i know it is tender, sometimes she can't go at all and on "good" days its runny, and still not normal in volume. It has been 4 weeks, and another visit to the vet is scheduled but even he suggested i ask around and see if anyone else had similar experiences?
So i'm asking..... sometimes the little one looks like a balloon about to pop and i am terrified she will die, so if anyone has a clue, please let me know. she is definitly my baby, and i can not imagine my life without her.
Karin