From:
Lauren Catlin
Date: 2008-03-24 22:08:25 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Ferret Losing a Great Deal of Weight
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Has he had his stool tested for Giardia, or any other parasite?
For feeding, what are you feeding him? He needs to be fed 20cc every three hours, if at all possible. If you cannot do it every three hours then you need to feed him extra every time. Also, you need to be really careful when force feeding because if you go too fast you could make him inhale it into his lungs. when my ferrets are sick I make a mixture:
3 cans chicken with chicken gravy gerber baby food
1 can of Hills prescription A/D diet. (You can buy it at vets office)
Ground kibble. (food you feed him)
Egg white (cooked)
Egg shells ground to a fine powder. I suggest you grind the egg shells before you put the other ingredients in the grinder because it could cause problems if it is still in sharp shards. If you are uncomfortable with this step, you could leave it out.
1-3 inches of nutri-cal
I also suggest that you go on Craftycreatures.com and buy some ferretzyme. It is very good for them. I am sure there are tons of other people that have even greater Duck soup recipes. Also, there is an ask Angela section where you can email her, and even though she is not a vet, she is very ferret knowledgeable. She may be able to give you some advice. she has helped me through a lot of ferret illness. You could also ask the other people on the forum about their recipes for duck soup.
I had a ferret that went from four pounds to two and a half pounds. He ended up having Giardia. How long has he been losing weight, and not acting right?
I hope that all goes well with your fuzzy. Hope that i might have helped. Do not give up, because he will know that you have given up on him. Be brave, you can do it!
-Lauren
Irene <irenekuik@hotmail.com> wrote: I have a 4 year old baby boy that has an enlarged spleen, shows
anemic, and has terrible appetite for food. He is a fairly large
ferret and went from weighing about 4 pounds to weighing now 2.5
pounds. They are worried about taking the spleen out because he is
anemic and they said the spleen creates the red blood cells that he
needs and if they take it out, he may have worse problems with being
anemic. I am now feeding him 4 times a day, but he is sooo boney and
I am so worried about what is going on inside of him. He wobbles when
he walks as if his hind area is very weak and sometimes he even drags
his stomach when he seems so tired. He has also been biting the
carpet like crazy, although I know he has not swollowed any of it,
and he even bit myself and my husband yesterday, which is totally out
of character for him. Can any of you please help me with my baby. I
am scared I am going to lose him soon and that would just kill me.
They have done ever test possible and cannot find anything wrong with
him at all. The bone marrow was normal, the lympnodes were normal,
and there was nothing wrong with his prostate or stomach at all. If
any of you have any advice on what might be wrong and what I can do
to get him eating more and getting his weight back up, I would be
eternally grateful to you. I really need to help this my baby.
Irene
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