Message Number: FHL11799 | New FHL Archives Search
From: "truthberry101"
Date: 2010-07-08 03:22:45 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] How much water for sick ferret?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com

I have a 6 year old ferret with diarrhea. The vet showed us how to give the ferret subcutaneous fluids for dehydration. The ferret is drinking some water and eating just a little (will take ferretvite off my finger and sometimes will still eat it if I mix it with chicken baby food). When you pinch up on the skin on his back between the shoulders it goes back very slowly, but I wonder if that's all dehydration or if age might make skin less elastic and we could end up harming him by giving him too much fluid at some point(his skin there was kind of wrinkly when he was healthy, but I never pinched it up so I don't have a baseline to compare it to). My questions:
1. How accurate is the pinch test for dehydration?
2. Can he get too much fluid and how will I know?
3. How much should he be drinking?
4. Should I adjust subcutaneous fluids based on how much he drinks?
3. How much ferretvite and chicken baby food do I need to make sure he eats so he doesn't starve?

[You will find this useful:
http://www.petcarevb.com/wordpress/ferrets/feeding-the-sick-ferret/
and if you look to your right on that site you can pull up
other articles in their Library
--Moderator]


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