From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2003-10-16 01:31:43 UTC
Subject: re: feeding Bob Church's chicken gravy as complete diet
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
IBD) and Ashling (sudden massive hypoglycemia)
Message-id: <a06002000bbb36ba99864@[10.0.1.26]>
We are getting a bit of laugh with Sherman. He is the one who had GI
biopsies recently and lost his left adrenal (which had just the
beginnings of hyperplasia but which had vascular malformations so
that it was serviced by many large and leaky blood vessels some of
which looked like they could give out). Shermie had long had fur
loss with no sign of adrenal problems and then it recently had
accelerated before the surgery. Well, he's now on a long acting
injectable steroid for his IBD that the Pred no longer controlled and
that agrees with him, and he is growing dense fur -- but only in the
areas which had most recently begun to lose it. The areas where he
had loss attributed to long term Pred use have not regrown and likely
won't. BTW, it quite proud of the improvement in his stools and
makes a point of showing them to us even though they certainly aren't
perfect. He obviously feels much better.
Ashling is the one who suddenly went massively into hypogylcemia and
almost died that night. So far she luckily doesn't show indications
of lymphoma which is relieving because the only other one we've
personally had do that had lympho. It is possible that she had an
insulinoma growth which simply did not produce too much insulin till
that night; this has been verified as a possibility, esp. given her
earlier recent blood test results. We'd been thinking of surgery and
lucky she does not appear to have any heart damage from her
experience. She did wind up with illiitis which is going down, but
we have to delay even considering surgery for a while because her
pancreas and liver are inflamed. So, she is on antibiotics,
Prednisolone, and Milk Thistle and then had more tests a month from
the first batch to plan again what to do for her with reasonable
safety. The amount of Prednisolone which holds her has decreased
already (down from 3 mg/ day to 2.5 mg per day) and she might be able
to be held with less now but we are not rushing things for obvious
reasons. Her decreased need might be due to reductions in
inflammation. The stress has increased her need for Florinef and
that had to be boosted slightly. Meanwhile, as she always does under
stress ever since she had her bilateral adrenal adrenal problem ( 3
and 1/2 years ago) her compromised follicles are dropping fur so she
is partly bald now. With her recent problems she actually looks her
age now instead of much younger, but although she is less active she
still climbs and is certainly not a couch potato.
Both are happy and playing.
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>,
<Yvon358@netzero.net>
From: "Cynthia Obrist" <cobrist@cox.net>
Message-ID: <003b01c39385$41fa6c10$1202a8c0@kboshehome>
I feed my five only Bob Church's chicken gravy, with a few modifications. =
My vet had me send a sample of my gravy to a Dairy Lab for analysis. I was=
using the Bob Church's gravy for a four pound chicken, using the recipe at=
www.trifl.org so adjust ingredients according to weight. =
When the analysis came back, Vet said to double the fat. Fat should be 24%=
. I get good, clean beef fat from the grocery butcher to add. I now do it=
by weight in proportion to the chicken weight. =
Vet said add salt to taste, like you would your own food. Ferrets need sal=
t. I add one tablespoon to a full recipe of chicken gravy (4 lb. chicken).=
=
Vet said to leave out the Nutrical and the Honey because he believes the su=
gars can cause Insulinoma. =
Vet said leave in the kibble because it contributes vitamins. =
Vet also said increasing the Ferrettone is fine since it's fat-based. So, =
I use three tablespoons of Ferrettone. =
Vet cautioned that gravy ingredients should be fully cooked, as ferrets cou=
ld catch Salmonella if the chicken is not fully cooked. I also wash the eg=
g shells before I crack the eggs open to clean any bacteria on the shells. =
=
My ferrets are very healthy eating two servings a day of chicken gravy. Th=
ey eat very little kibble, although I do leave it out for them.
thanks,
Cindy O =
End of ferrethealth Digest
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