From:
Wolfy
Date: 2008-10-30 15:14:43 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Overweight and starved ferrets
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
I was wondering if anyone has come across something I have this year.? Or if they at least can take a stab at a theory that might explain it.? Cuase I"m dying to know.
A kit, 7 weeks old, and who was starved came into my care.? I think he ran into trouble with all of the transports and at the holding area before he came to the pet store.? He was moderately emaciated and completely lethargic.? He was had only a tad of what appeared to be dehydration. But just?a tad.? Poops were normal!?? He had only been in the pet store a couple days.? They did not notice he was in trouble because he was so fluffy, sweet, and they of course are ignorant.?
We got him home and put him on warm soaked kibble.? He ate it well.? Not verociously.? I didn't notice a difference in the next 36-48 hours, so on top of wet kibble, ?I put him on a soupy concotion of gerber turkey, ground up kibble, eggs, ferretvite, ferretone and a tbl of heavy whipping cream.? I hand fed him and he ate almost double that way then if I were to just give it to him.? Well a week passed.? Barely any change.? Another week passed.? Personality and energy change, totally, but almost NO weight gain!? This concoction with hand feeding always leads to a visable difference in ferrets 3-5 days.? He had absolutely no other symptoms.? Given the fact that I strongly believed this came from stress or even something to do with early vaccines surgery and weaning ... I did not take him from his new home to a vet.? In the second week, I started to ask around about failure to thrive.? What is that by the way, just so I know?
I think it was in the third week we noticed a big change.? When it happened, it was like a light switch.? He took off.? After getting him to slightly above than normal weight, making sure it wasn't tummy weight and indeed equally all over the body and that there was some more muscle mass ... I weaned him off the concotion.?
My question is this.? Yes, I lead him to an above average weight.? But after we stopped he kept packing on the weight incredibly!? Today, at about 21 weeks of age, he's the fattest ferret I've ever seen in my life.? It was cute and funny a couple of weeks ago.? But today his play, etc, is hindered.? I'm in a situation where it would be a real pain in the butt to seperate him and put him on a diet.? I can if I "have to".
Which leads to my second question.? Do I "have to"?? Will this rectify with time alright?? Hes happy and gorgous and healthy as a horse now.? And would putting him a diet truly solve anything?? I mean would he pack it back on when put back into a normal situation anyway?? And more importantly would it be further harmful to mess with his weight and metabolism yet again (or is this the time to regulate it?)?
Summary of questions:
Has anyone enountered this before.? Does anyone have any theories as to what happened?
What are my options, do I need to take any action at all?
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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