From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2004-07-04 02:42:50 UTC
Subject: RE: ECE, eating, and hydration question
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <8370682.1088908970718.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> Is it true that an ill ferret should not be hand-fed (ie gerber 2nd stage chicken)? Someone once told me that it's better not to feed them, just to keep them hydrated.
They need to eat.
The body uses more nutrients for other functions and an ill ferret (esp. one who is passing food too fast needs to eat very regularly to avoid getting fatty liver if possible.
The person may have been thinking about the old (Have no idea if this is still done.) technique of having people not eat with some things that can cause bad runs. That is what my physicians advised for a week or more for me when I had a relatively mild case of Weils about 30 years ago which left no permanent damage at all. (Blame mall food from a chain that had rats... These days a person would get a settlement, esp. since the health dept. found the rats.)
Ferrets aren't people, though, and they just don't deal with this in the same way.
I'd like to recommend some resources:
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/babyfood.html
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/ECE/ECE.html
and
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/Clin_Path/ClinPath.html
esp. the section beginning:
> Probably the most common misinterpretation
>that I see on a routine basis is in the area of hepatic
>enzymes. Remember, that the ferret, being by nature
>an obligate carnivore, has an extremely short
>digestive tract, and requires meals as often as every
>four to six hours. Should food not be available, it
>possesses the ability to quickly mobilize peripheral
>fat stores in order to meet energy requirements.
>When this physiologic mechanism is activated, the
>liver is literally flooded with fat, which results in
>hepatocellular swelling which may be marked.
>The result of this swelling is the leakage of
>membrane enzymes such as alanine
>aminotransferase, and as the hepatocellular
>swelling increases, occlusion of bile canaliculi
>occurs, resulting, over time, in elevation of alkaline
>phosphatase.
Source: Dr. Bruce Williams veterinary pathologist and ferret expert