From:
mulberry@swva.net
Date: 2003-07-11 00:03:39 UTC
Subject: unexplainable weight loss
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <6751443.1057881819589.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
My 6 1/2 year old male ferret Chili has been steadily losing weight. At th=
e beginning of January he weighed 2.065 lbs (which is normal for him) and i=
n two weeks he dropped down to 2.005 lbs. My vet treated him for gastritis=
and he steadily gained the weight back but ever since April it has been a =
struggle to keep weight on him. Today he weighs 1.15 lbs. He is a small f=
erret so he doesn't look too skinny fortunately. My vet says it could be s=
easonal weight loss but he has never lost this much weight in the summer. =
He had insulinoma surgery at the end of May and came through fine even thou=
gh his blood glucose has remained in the 80's and he is on 1.25 mg. prednis=
one daily. Last week he had a blood profile done and the only abnormality =
was a low albumin level. The urinalysis was fine so my vet thinks he isn't=
absorbing enough protein from his food (I think) and wants me to give him =
high protein treats. I feed my ferrets a mixture of Totally Ferret, Scienc=
e Diet kitten (which I plan to phase out of the mix) and Purina Diabetes Ma=
nagement Feline Formula (which my vet highly recommends due to the high pro=
tein level). I have tried peanut butter and chicken and he hates both. I h=
ave been giving him a few Totally Ferret treats a day because they seem to =
have a decent level of protein in them. I guess my questions are: 1)What c=
ould be causing his weight loss? and 2)What other high protein snacks can I=
try? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Jaki
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