From:
"muirfield2001"
Date: 2011-08-15 13:32:01 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] feeding a ferret who won't eat; what I have learned
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
In my recent troubles with my almost seven year old ferret, Bridget, who has suffered serious health issues since my bringing home a five month old Petco girl as a new companion after Bridget lost her mate last month, I have learned two things that I want to pass on to the group. For those who have given me helpful feedback, I thank all of you again. Before giving the recap, I will share what I have learned through this experience, so that you don't have to read through my update to get that info. I have learned that it is a very delicate situation to introduce a new ferret to an older ferret, especially a ferret who is grieving the loss of a mate. And I have learned that if a ferret won't even eat duck soup on their own or by being hand fed (Bridget refused both), that ferret may voluntarily be willing to eat Carnivore Care (which is purchased in packets and mixed with water). The short recap is that Bridget was seemingly very healthy when Clementine died in mid-July. I feared that she seemed depressed immediately after we lost Clemy, so instead of having her become an "only ferret", I went right up to Petco and adopted a girl - Lexie, without doing research on introducing a new ferret. I was more worried about negative health effects on Bridget at the loss of a mate and didn't realize the complications that could occur when introducing a new ferret to a grieving ferret. A friend who runs a shelter advised me to get a young ferret to increase the chance that the new ferret would bond with Bridget and she advised me to do it asap, so I relied soley on that advise and didn't check further - partially out of my fear that I had to do something quickly to help Bridget get over her loss. So, I proceed with the "asap", my new girl seemed healthy so I didn't test for ADV or do a quarantine of longer than the first 3 days, where I caged separately and swapped bedding. Lexie's poos looked funny (yellowish, mucous like) the first two days but that completely went away the third day so I chalked it up to Lexie's stress at a new environment. The introductions never went well. New, young Lexie tried to establish dominance right away over Bridget, who had been the dominant alpha one of my original three (we lost Lily at age 3.5 to likely lymphoma). Bridget seemed too old or mildly depressed to fight off Lexie, and she would play dead or try to hide and Lexie's attack efforts increased and it clearly stressed Bridget very much, even with my tight supervision and gradual introductions. Eventually I had to keep them separate in the same room at all times(separate halves of huge six level cage)and separate play times but continued to do very short very tightly supervised visits each day, and would immediately pull Lexie off Bridget and scold her if there was a problem. I did this in the hope that things would gradually improve between them. I made sure to also give Bridget lots of extra special time/attention, to help reduce the stress caused by my bringing in a new ferret. A little over a week ago, Bridget seemed to have perked up and the short visits with her and Lexie were going a little better. During one such visit the weekend before last, I received a phone call while supervising their visit, turned my head for a second and Lexie had jumped on Bridget and started the most aggressive attack yet. They both moved under a bunch of blankets, with Bridget squeeling and in a lot of distress and it took me a few seconds to get under it to pull them both out. Right after that, my healthy girl Bridget went completely downhill. Her poo a little later looked bad for the first time ever, she started grinding her teeth that evening, stopped eating, etc. Monday morning (a week ago), I took her to vet (she had just had a wellness visit with bloodwork and xrays the Friday before and had been fine), who checked her in to their animal hospital (24 hour staffed) and it has been a struggle since. She came home last Thursday and I had to take her back in yesterday, where they will keep her again this week to see if they can get her stabilized and strong enough to come home again. Diagnosis is any of the following or a combination: a. stress ulcers, b. bacterial GI infection, including the possibility of some ECE even though Lexie is showing no signs of any illness, c. gastric effects from long term percorten/pediapred meds that Bridget gets for having surgery on both adrenals two years ago or d. gastric lymphoma. When I brought her home last Thursday with many meds to give her, she has fought me on every med - even with ferretone which she loves - and I have had to syringe force it. She would drink a little but would not eat, including duck soup, so I had to syringe force soft food - which was an awful experience and she fought that hard, even when scruffed. When I took her back to the vet yesterday, who was fortunately working on a Sunday, they gave her soft Carnivore Care, and she lapped it up. I couldn't believe it!! I wished I had known that last Thursday when I brought her home. I wanted to pass this all on in the hopes that it can help someone else. And I continue to experience tremendous guilt over the rapid decline in my beloved Bridget, which I believe in my heart is completely due to my bringing a new ferret home. Lexie is an otherwise nice ferret and I know it is not her fault, and she will always have a good home with me and lots of love. But if I had to do over again, I would have waited, researched, taken my time and kept Bridget as a solitary ferret with tons of attention from me, while assessing the situation to see if I should eventually bring in a mate. The guilt I feel is really hard to deal with, despite well meaning and wonderful messages from people in this group telling me that my intentions were good and not to pound myself too much. My Bridget is really suffering, and it is so hard to live with that when the cause and effect is so closely related to my quick and unresearched actions. I will do whatever is necessary to try to get her well, and at this point it is unclear as to whether she can regain her footing, given her age and the seriousness of her weight loss, dehydration, etc. I am also finding it hard because I was grieving the loss of Clementine, and now I am grieving the loss of Bridget's health a few weeks later. A month ago, I had two healthy almost seven year old ferrets who were the loves of my life and best friends with each other. I know this goes with the territory, but it never seems to get easier. This is the first time I have blamed myself for the loss of health of a ferret, and that is the worst. Any further imput would be greatly appreciated. Lisa
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