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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2014 10:38:49 GMT -5
So first off we just got 2 Female ferrets on the 4th. One has a nice coat and is all healthy. But the other one is skinny and her fur isn't really soft and she also has some fur loss. I would take them to the vet but my vet isn't available. I can't use a picture because I'm on a app. Ask any questions below and please give me some advice!
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Post by Heather on Sept 7, 2014 10:54:58 GMT -5
How old are they?
ciao
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2014 11:26:06 GMT -5
Hi and Welcome to the HFF  What are the girls names? Did you get any info on them? Did they come from a rescue or were they someone's ferrets and rehomed? What are they eating now? How do they Poos look? Have you ever had ferrets before? I know its alot of questions. The more info, the better for us to help you. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2014 13:57:00 GMT -5
Its okay I don't mind  Rose is the one that is skinny and has dry skin and Lily is the very healthy one. Kind of I guess.... she said they were a boned pair and got them at petco (so they are marshall ferrets) and she kind of knew about them but she said to bathe them once a month , so that might be why they have dry skin, and feed them whatever ferret food and cat food she could get. They are eating a mix of cat food and ferret food but we are switching them to a high quality cat food or maybe a raw diet. The poop looks normal.... eh maybe a little grainy and no this is my first time owning ferrets. Also when the first poop it looks "oily" idk how to describe it...  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2014 14:52:23 GMT -5
Rose and Lily are pretty names. I'm guessing the cat food was canned and is not agreeing with their tummies. The grainy part is probably undigested fats from the food. You already know that alot of baths aren't good. Your best bet to help Rose will be to get them both on a better quality food. As a Holistic forum, naturally we would recommend raw feeding. We have a Mentor program and you can also look at some of the Member's switching threads and see how the process works. There usually is a waiting list for a Mentor, so if you build a switching thread, all of the Mentors will pop in and offer advice. We recommend starting a switch with the Soupie recipe: 8oz of chicken thigh 1-2 chicken hearts 1/2 chicken liver 1/2 tsp of dried eggshell powder. You simply let some raw eggshells dry out and then grind them up. I use a clean coffee grinder. You can use a blender or magic bullet and puree all that. Add some warm water and make a nice thin soup. You can freeze the leftover in ice cube trays and then just pop them out and defrost. Make each batch a little thicker. Once they are eating that well, start adding tiny slices of chicken to the soup. The soup is nutritionally complete and they can stay on that until they are ready to start eating bigger pieces of meat. Then we would talk about the Frankenprey menu. Freeze dried raw is an option. Stella and Chewy's make a good FDR product for felines. Duck,duck,goose and tummy, tickin turkey are two of their flavors. FDR can be expensive. If you need to go with kibble, the better quality kibbles will probably need to be ordered online. Here is a chart to help you find some. Because of recalls and formula changes, most kibble ferrents will mix two kibbles together. That way, if there is a recall or change, you still have the other kibble to fall back on. moredooks.herobo.com/ |
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Post by racheld on Sept 7, 2014 16:23:07 GMT -5
Fish oil would help with the dry skin, probably. And once they're used to it it's a healthier treat than ferretone.  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2014 16:55:25 GMT -5
I also recommend fish/salmon oil. Since mine have been on it their coats are so soft and nice. Don't put anything on her coat, no sprays and such, let her natural oils do the work, and you can help her along with healthy salmon oil or some yummy raw meat. Kibble fed ferrets are always somewhat dehydrated, which makes for a rough coat. When on raw they get rehydrated, and thus a soft coat. And a raw diet will also help with weight gain, should help a lot. If she is underweight (Vet says she's underweight) I will recommend a product called Carnivore Care. I used it for months with my ferret who had insulinoma and was underweight, and she was a healthy weight within about 1 months of eating it twice a day every day. She was 14.8 oz on May 13th And was 22.3 oz on June 22nd The only thing that had changed was she got Carnivore Care. It is quite expensive, $25 for I think 3/4 lb. Neichei got a lot of it, and that bag lasted about 2-3 weeks. But it was very worth it IMO. Good luck with your new ferrets, I'm sure they're lovely  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2014 17:30:47 GMT -5
Thanks everyone! We are going to start the Raw Transition next week I think :thankyou:  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2014 20:08:16 GMT -5
Wait could it be Inflammatory Bowel disease? She does have a few of the symptoms..... Here is a pic of her poo this time I know its hers ,  |
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Post by lyles on Sept 7, 2014 22:46:19 GMT -5
Wait could it be Inflammatory Bowel disease? She does have a few of the symptoms..... Here is a pic of her poo this time I know its hers , It is not as bad as I've seen but can definitely see some birdseed consistency. Food is not being completely digested, which is mostly likely from the cat food part of the mix. IBS would be more watery with some funky color variation. That's still an acceptable firmness. Healthy ferret poop won't be completely solid and should look like soft serve chocolate icecream  |
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Post by Sherry on Sept 8, 2014 8:58:58 GMT -5
With IBD almost every stool would be different, from watery to yellow to green, formed, semi formed, bird seed, mucousy etc
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2014 14:05:25 GMT -5
Okay that's a relief!
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