From:
ahartnett@cox.net
Date: 2004-02-05 02:16:45 UTC
Subject: RE: Jan. 31 update on JoJo
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <2670068.1075947405771.JavaMail.root@indium.smartgroups.com>
Path Valley Farms food has chicken as the first ingredient. If you go to their site, they have a link that compares different ferret food (and some cat food, I think) ingredients. My ferret was having bloody poops was very weak from an intestinal infection and inflammation and would only eat chicken baby food (fed to him on a spoon of course). When his vet suggested to a food with chicken (not chicken meal) as the first ingredient, he improved immensely. Hope this will help.
Author wrote:
> We still aren't positive what has been going on, but I have my suspicions. I have been forwarding ALL information to my vet. From what I understand he has posted on a medical group that he's in too. (I like the fact that he's willing to ask for help.)
> TODAY and since yesterday afternoon...JoJo seems to be getting much better! He is eating, drinking, and his poopy is back to normal. He no longer has the "head tilt", but he still wobbles a little when he tries to get up and for a few seconds after that. After that, he seems almost normal. He got up to play yesterday and managed to stay up for about 10 minutes. He's been up several times today to play. He still isn't playing with the other ferrets, and when he does I need to monitor it closely since I have a bully in the midst. He is playing alone though. He loves his crinkly sack.
> I am keeping him in a seperate cage at night because I'm afraid of what the "bully" might do. This will continue until he is strong enough and I feel confident enough that he can make it with the others.
> We have been searching for a food that he likes that is high enough in crude protein. Hopefully there aren't any objections (but if there are, I NEED to know). Mom was shopping this morning and found that "Purina Kitten Chow" has 40% crude protein. I read in a post (don't remember where) that it shouldn't have too much wheat protein. How do I tell? This has "wheat flour" listed 8th on the list of ingredients, but it doesn't give a percentage. By the way, JoJo loves it and is eating more than he did yesterday...yesterday he was eating like he hadn't eaten in a week (which is basically true).
> Many thanks go out to everyone for all of your help. I will send out personal thank-you's after JoJo is "out of the woods."
> Marian Wilson/Anglin