From:
"MuinCat"
Date: 2004-06-08 09:53:29 UTC
Subject: RE: [ferrethealth] not eating
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-ID: <7777071.1086691049890.JavaMail.nobody@magnesium.smartgroups.com>
Not eating can be due to sooo many different things. Has anything changed
recently? New food? New people or pets in the house? How is his stool?
Activity level? Fluid intake? Could he have been exposed to any
viruses/bacteria from other animals or humans? Do you notice him grinding
his teeth at all? If so, he may be having tummy pains from ulcers and that
can cause them not to eat. This happened with one of my little girls and
she turned around fairly quickly after I put her on Carafate and fed her A/D
(a soft food you can get from the vet that isn't too terribly expensive) and
Nutri-Cal.
It is important that when you get him to a vet that it be one that is
knowledgeable about ferrets--there's no sense in spending the money and then
spending it on someone who may not necessarily be giving you the best
diagnosis. Also, even if the vet may be willing to work with you on the
fees that THEY charge, there are some fees, like bloodwork, that they just
won't be able to negotiate with because they are charged by a third party
lab. DO NOT skimp on that though because the lab work is vital to the
diagnosis. If you don't get that, you're asking your vet to work blindly.
Did you happen to see the post earlier about the treatment for the "mystery
illness?" It had a nice "duck soup" recipe you may want to try for your
force feedings (which I think you should continue to do until you can get
the advice of an actual vet). I will cut and paste the email below in case
you didn't get it.
Good Luck To You and Your Guy,
Deana
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~