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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2015 15:47:26 GMT -5
Yay! Her weight is wonderful! Hmm, it sounds like she will at least eat the slivers, so keep offering them. That was a great idea to do slivers with warm water; unfortunately Maisie is a smart cookie! Maybe try slivers with some warm soup drizzled on top? As she's licking the soup, the slivers should get into her mouth. (She'll either chew them or spit them out - I'm hoping she'll chew them!) Regarding IBD- I'll tag jason ( bitbyter) for that one For the red paws-was she too warm maybe? Or could she have stepped in something outside? Maybe a fluke and she's okay today? It does sound like she's doing great and getting back to her ol self! Yay!
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Post by bitbyter on Apr 11, 2015 7:18:08 GMT -5
Blue, when you say her paws were red, do you mean the pads or were the tops of her feet under the fur red as well? Any swelling of her feet? IBD is usually indicated by repeated incidence of diarrhea on certain proteins. I never worry about 1 odd poop and look for repeated incidence and patterns. 1 odd poop here and there is pretty normal for a raw fed ferret.
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Post by Blue on Apr 11, 2015 11:26:52 GMT -5
bitbyter -- just the pads. I noticed it because I know it can be a symptom of insulinoma or hyperthermia, but didn't see anything wrong with her. I wish I'd felt them to see if they were warm -- I didn't. Her paws are usually cold and pale pink, even after sleeping. And thanks for the reassurance re: the poop This morning, offered: - 0.5 oz meat shavings (vegetable peeler) - 0.2 oz slivers (ceramic knife) - 0.7 oz egg - no added soup or water! Eaten: 0.7 oz of a combination of egg and meat. I saw her chewing pieces of meat (yay!), and there is egg left over, so it was a good mixture of both. I put the half that was left back in the fridge for tonight. ferretmomma, did you ever get thunderstorms yesterday? Nothing here. And the weekend is looking gorgeous. Enjoy yourself
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Post by Blue on Apr 11, 2015 11:40:08 GMT -5
Oh, I've been meaning to tell you: we've finally achieved corn chip & grape tail status!! I was so surprised I asked a friend if she wanted to smell Maisie's tail, and a very quick and firm "NO!" reminded me that I wasn't on HFF This week I've also noticed that all her coarse/wiry hair is gone. It looks like the shedding is done and she's now got the famous soft fur :-) :-) I didn't really expect that to happen, I thought if it hadn't happened yet, it wouldn't. But what do you know!? This whole raw thing is an ongoing adventure
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2015 16:16:50 GMT -5
Thanks Jason! I know the one random poop turns me into a Hawk watcher of the poops-i have to remind myself I'm not looking at kibble poops/don't panic I'm so glad she's chewing! Keep it up Maisie! Maybe tomorrow try doing 50/50 vegetable peeler/ceramic knife slivers? If she doesn't seem pleased with that ratio, keep it anyways. (I think she will respond well though!) The thunderstorms cleared out by the afternoon yesterday but Thursday night they were crazy! A lot of people lost power for hours; thankfully ours only flickered twice! Today is turning out beautiful and tomorrow should be better! Oh that grape tail! Is it awesome or what!?! I got the grape tail only with my boys and my Reshiram has a faint corn chip smell on his chest! My girls got crazy soft, but did not have any food smells I'm so glad you can experience it with Maisie! And her soft coat! It's cool "knowing" you're making her healthy but being able to see and feel (and smell) it - it's very rewarding!
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Post by bitbyter on Apr 11, 2015 18:05:47 GMT -5
I'd keep an eye on her paws over the next few weeks. Red paws can also be a sign of an allergic reaction.
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Post by Blue on Apr 13, 2015 20:12:28 GMT -5
Thanks bitbyter, I had no idea it could also be a sign of allergies. Everything fine so far. ferretmomma, I'm glad your power didn't give out! Weigh-in day: 2 lbs 2 oz - very stable! Is this her summer weight now, especially since she's finished shedding? I'm kind of amazed and pleased that she kept so much weight on, she was only 1.51 lbs last June when I got her. This weekend I bought a new blender (again!) and made soup at a safe 50% water. I'm not adding water to it before serving anymore, so from Maisie's point of view, it's actually thicker. I'm also doing half soup, half peels and slivers. During the first serving she mostly eats the soup; 2nd serving, more slivers are eaten, and then I just added a bit of warm water and got her to eat a little bit more. Altogether I think she eats about half the slivers, i.e. .2 or .3 oz. Meat from soup: 0.5 oz. Your story about Pepper and the alarm was so funny! Well, except for the drawing blood part. I was thinking another possibility for the change in her reaction to the sound was that you'd moved the alarm? That might also make it sound different to her. Silly thing
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2015 8:57:15 GMT -5
Thanks, I'm so glad ours stayed on too Her weight is very stable! So far it seems my Zoey is the only one who doesn't change much (during winter she topped out at 1 lb 13oz and on Friday she was 1 lb 10oz - everyone else has lost between 4-7 oz) Keep up with recording her weight weekly incase she still does want a bikini body for summer (giggle) Congrats on your new blender purchase That's awesome that you're not adding additional water :thumbsup: About how much, total on the dish, does she eat per sitting? I'm a little confused- the half soup, half peels and slivers...is that for each sitting? Or does she eat just soup in the morning and then the slivers and peels in the evening? Oh yes, my little Pepe-kins (smh) It really is so bizzare. The alarm is in the same spot, same alarm, same evening and morning 'routine' (only saying that since she bit me Saturday morning), and none of the other babies are affected by this 'big bad alarm'. I just saw, someone posted a similar reaction (drew blood when turning off the alarm) but they had also just moved. I wonder if there's something in the air? (headwall)
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Post by Blue on Apr 15, 2015 18:27:10 GMT -5
Sorry about the confusion... I'm pretty confused myself For each meal I was doing a combination of soup, slivers, and peels. Right now I'm just doing peels, because she seems to respond better to that, and I'm trying to make them progressively thicker and longer (they're still pretty thin). I make a bowl with 0.5 - 1 oz soup ( = 0.25 - 0.5 oz meat) and 0.2 - 0.3 oz peels. She finishes that bowl, usually leaving some peels behind (I'm going to start saying slivers because peels just sounds weird, but it's slivers of meat from the vegetable peeler). I put more soup in the bowl, and usually by the 2nd or 3rd helping, she eats the slivers. Sometimes I add a bit more water, but I don't back down on the slivers. She is so incredibly funny with her little drama-queen routines. If she's not happy and wants something different, she'll take the long way around the cage to her nesting box, and then turn her back on me. When I come back with a 2nd helping/version, she's usually waiting with her chin on the threshold of her box and comes out as soon as I put the new stuff down. She also likes flipping the bowl, but then, she's a ferret, so that's perfectly normal
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2015 9:30:59 GMT -5
I *thought* that is what you meant/how her meals were, but I wanted to be sure Since you're giving her 2nd and 3rd helpings, what if you would give her more to start with? Like giving her a total of 2oz and then if she cleans her plate, then give her a 2nd helping? I'm only suggesting this so it's less *work* for you. (Sometimes my kids get weird if there's a lot of food on a plate-it seems to prevent them from diving in; so if that's why you're breaking it up, I completely understand! Silly divas!) Isn't it funny how dramatic they can be!?! I have had backs turned to me numerous times but I think the worst was when I was introducing the soup to Zoey. She would spit, wiggle and try to pry herself out of my arms, then rub her face on ground for almost 5 minutes-THEN she looked me straight in the eyes and I swear I could read her mind "mommy, I thought you loved me? Why would you try to kill me? I guess I'll go to bed now" and she would sigh and walk away...but that look practically shattered my heart! But did I tell you Zoey was my first to crunch quail bones? Hehe! (dance) Oh yes, the bowl flipping! Elvyra was the worst! She would wait until my back was turned and bam! Beautiful pink raw meat soup ALL over the beige carpet I want to tell you Maisie will 'grow' out of that, but a couple weeks ago Elvyra flipped and then dragged a plate of organ soup half way across the living room before I caught her. (Organ soup is deep, dark, blood red...ugh) Ha, but we deal with these crazy things because we love them! So, how is Maisie feeling? Still good? What about the teeth grinding-no more still!? And poops still good? Would you like to try a different protein soon? Keep up with the peels/slivers and I think that's a great idea to make them thicker! Maybe by Monday we can aim for slivers only!
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Post by Blue on Apr 17, 2015 16:00:14 GMT -5
Friday afternoon, yay!! I started doing the 1 oz servings after she ate too much too fast and threw up and you're right, it does take a lot of time! I gave her a 2 oz soup serving (1 oz meat) last night and this morning (she seems to get sick around 2.5-3). She ate the soup and I think at least half of the slivers. She's still not a huge fan. I think it's going to be pretty slow going. Yeah, I was thinking of trying beef this weekend, I have some in the freezer. I've been doing pork for a long time now, I should probably switch. I think I'll do beef muscle and pork organs & heart and hopefully she won't mind the change too much!! Zoey sounds like a real handful Isn't the sigh just so dramatic? I love it I can't hold Maisie at all or have her anywhere near my lap while trying to get her to eat, she totally associates it with medicating and gets horribly stressed. It's hands off, although she does like eating things off my fingers, thank goodness. That's got us through a few changes. I meant to say no teeth grinding in my last post, so of course she's done it twice since then. Once very briefly when she woke up, and once very briefly after eating, and both those times it was a chewing kind of sound, which makes me hope that it's just a piece of meat stuck in her teeth. I've read that that's a possibility. I'm not thrilled about her having meat stuck in her teeth all night though! So maybe the tooth grinding due to pain is gone, and all that remains is the need for a ferret toothpick? (I am not flossing her teeth.) In any case she seems very healthy and happy at the moment, so yay! I'm going to work on giving her a higher percentage of slivers per bowl. Maybe I'll stick with pork slivers even with the beef soup? So many options... Have a good weekend, and thanks for the help
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Post by Blue on Apr 19, 2015 20:39:18 GMT -5
Sunday night, and I start off Monday with a dental cleaning! (Like Maisie, but with no anesthetics, I hope). This weekend was a lot more successful that anticipated; I've been doing about 1 oz soup (=0.5 oz meat), and 0.5 oz slivers, and she's eating a good amount of them! I see her doing the little eye-squinting sideways chewing (it's so cute) I'm going to continue going slow but I never thought I'd be (almost) at 50% this fast! Oh, and the slivers have all been beef for the past two days, and no bad poops, yay! So now we've successfully tried lamb, pork, and beef (jury still out on the chicken). I forgot to weigh her today, I'll do it tomorrow. Oh, and no teeth grinding of any kind! (dance) I hope you're still doing well and that your Monday is OK despite the fact that it's a Monday
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2015 8:36:24 GMT -5
Gosh this weekend flew by! Monday monday, sigh. Dentist first thing today?!? Well, at least you'll get it out of the way and then you'll have pearly whites! I am so happy to hear the beef was a success! YAY! (dance) I'm not going to say 'yay' on the no teeth grinding because then she does it I also love the squinty eyes when they eat! It's very satisfying! I can see how you forgot to weigh her; too much excitement! The beef slivers, are they the peels or slivers with a knife? Since she is doing so well, I think you can give her a little push by doing 0.75oz soup and 1oz slivers. If you still have some pork meat, throw in a couple pork slivers with the beef slivers. That way, if she *smells* too much beef, it might throw her off - but with a couple pork slivers in there, it might make her think she's still getting the 1oz soup. (Does that make sense?) Aww, thank you! I'm doing pretty good but I have an appointment with the surgeon on Friday. They really want to take my gall bladder out so I want to ask a million questions, aka, try to understand where they're coming from since all the tests were okay. Sigh, getting old is a pain in the butt! :pullhair: You 2 are doing great and progressing very very well! :thumbsup: I hope the dentist went well for you today and let me know what you think about doing more beef.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2015 9:15:06 GMT -5
Good Morning! Just checking in to see how things are going (I hope the dentist went well)
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Post by Blue on Apr 24, 2015 11:19:27 GMT -5
Sorry for the long delay! Dentist went fine thank you Work has been a little crazy. Just a very quick update: - 4/20/15 weight: 2 lbs 1.5 oz (still stable) - I think I've figured out that she doesn't like beef that much which is kind of helpful in the long run, but very inconvenient right now! More later! Oh wait, today's your appointment, isn't it? I hope it goes well and that you get all the answers you need
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