|
|
Post by Deleted on May 13, 2015 21:14:47 GMT -5
My ferret was diagnosed with insulinoma a couple of months ago. She is now on pred and diazoxide and will no longer eat hard Food. I was feeding her a mixture of organic ground chicken breast, science diet ad, and carnivore care. I removed the carnivore care because she is gaining a ton of weight. After my continuous research i decided to order some Wysong Epigen 90 (to put in the blender with water) and Archetype II. After my order was placed i started to read newer reviews, saying the formula was changed in 2014 and people's pets are sick from it:( does anyone here currently feed these foods to their ferret? i want to do whatever i can to make her feel as good and be as healthy as possible. She seems to either have diarreah Or is constipated most of the time. i was hoping this food was my answer but now i dont know what to do. Im hoping to hear some good things about this food since its already on the way, but really i just need advice in general. Thank you!
|
|
|
|
Post by raynebc on May 14, 2015 1:53:37 GMT -5
Mixing kibble and wet/raw foods (or feeding them too closely to each other) might be adding to the ferret's digestive upset. Wysong did change formulas without notice and lots of people won't forgive them for it, although they do sell a "digestive support" formula that's closer to the original than the regular Epigen 90 is now. Archetype 2 is closer to a traditional kibble and has lots of vegetables in it, probably more than Epigen 90 does. It may be worth trying to offer her a raw soup made with something other than chicken, perhaps lamb or pork, in case she doesn't tolerate chicken very well.
If she does well with the soup, you could work toward slivers or maybe even a meal of soft/small bones like quail or cornish game hen.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 14, 2015 10:09:47 GMT -5
I have nothing good to say about wysong epigen asit made my ferret itch terribly. Also she started loosing weight. She does not itch now only on occassion.
If ur ferret has allergy to chicken , you may try to feed proteins in rodent family like mice and rats. My ferrets kept diarrhea eating things with feathers although i do give them quail. Also a great protein is guinea pig frome Hare Today. My babies lived to about 5.5 on kibble. One lived to 6.5 . A fter about 3 years old they started having problems.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 14, 2015 10:23:12 GMT -5
I had one little girl who loved mush( kibble and water) . Her teeth were the worst as it laid tartar seemingly faster than others. Also, since she would eat more mush than eating the kibble bits,I know i kept her sugar spiked. She died of pancreatic cancer and started going blind ,which was probably related to sugar spikes. Since people with diabetes as i can relate ( hubbie). When his sugar gets high he can not see very well.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 14, 2015 10:52:32 GMT -5
When I was feeding FDR (freeze dried raw), one of the products that I used was the Wysong Archetypal 1. That's a freeze dried raw product. I don't know anyone else who has talked about using this and since I don't use it anymore, I don't know if the formula change affected it. It can be expensive, but might be worth looking into. Another option would be Stella and Chewy's feline version of FDR. tummy ticklin turkey and duck,duck,goose. They have a few other flavors also. So does Whole Life and Fresh is Best. I bought them from Amazon. I followed a Frankenprey menu with the FDR. A minimum of three proteins and used FDR organs like freeze dried turkey heart (muscle meat) and dried liver. I have five, so it did cost alot. With one, your costs would be lower. You would want to hydrate it and it's not going to help with cleaning teeth. You would want to learn to brush her teeth. Back when my first ferret Ponce was diagnosed with Insulinoma and before we found his Lymphoma, he was on kibble. I had not found the forum yet. My vet talked with a ferret specialist who suggested a kibble called Forever Young. On the kibble chart, it ranked high with 90% meat. There is always going to be some vegetable matter in a kibble, that is how the meat holds its shape. Ponce took to the new kibble pretty well, but we lost him to the lymphoma rather quickly. Here is a link to the kibble chart. It shows you how to read a kibble and what kibbles rank highest. moredooks.herobo.com/search.php?chart=ferretGood luck. I'm sorry that your little fellow has this illness. The more you learn about it and can recognize signs of low Blood Glucose, the more time you will have with him.  |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 14, 2015 17:02:29 GMT -5
You all are wonderful. I really appreciate all the advice. i am going to look into all these options and see what i come up with. I just wanted to add though that she is 7-8 yrs old and the chicken i am feeding her is always cooked. would it still be best to try and work some/ one of these meats into her diet as raw? Or if she doesnt eat them that way is it ok for me to cook an entire rat/quail/guinea pig:( and then through it in a blender? sorry if these are silly questions.. i am going to be raising my next ferret on entirely different foods.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 14, 2015 17:13:58 GMT -5
Also. one more thing: ) rhe highest we have seen her blood glucose was 54. Shes never had a full blown scary seizure but she sleeps all the time and twitches but still alert. Her eyes are red and watery, shes fat, and her breathing sounds congested sometimes. Also shes blind. And has an infected tooth. im thinking there is more wrong with her but my vet is uneducated about ferrets even though she knows a ton more than my first vet Did. (She still loves going outside, being petted, licking my face and eating as much food as possible:))My point is.. im not necessarily trying to make her live longer. i want her tummy to feel good and i dont want to make her health Any worse.
|
|
|
|
Post by raynebc on May 14, 2015 17:25:45 GMT -5
An infected tooth will make it harder to feed larger pieces of meat or bones in general. Is the vet able to take care of the tooth? A raw meat diet is considered the most appropriate one for ferrets, it's just that getting them used to it can take work. Ferrets won't get as much nutrition from cooked meat, if you try to move away from kibble, make sure the meat/organs you serve are raw. There are commercial pet foods that are ground meat, bone and organs that you can consider, but those are usually expensive. The raw soup recipe on the forum is a good starting point, you throw meat, liver, heart and a calcium source (dried+ground egg shell or bone meal) into a blender with enough water to not kill the motor, and blend it to a soup. Many people usually start with a thinner soup (more water) and work up to a thicker pudding-like consistency. You can substitute the chicken thigh meat with another meat if you want, chicken is just a very popular meat with ferrets.
|
|
|
|
Post by miamiferret2 on May 14, 2015 20:07:12 GMT -5
I have not used the Epigen since i do not feed kibble. I have used the Archetype 1 for ferrets, but that is freeze dried raw.
I have never had any issues with the freeze dried raw. I also have used the Wysong Dream Treats for many years. Never any issues. However, those are also freeze dried raw.
I have heard of others that have experienced problems similar to what you describe with the new Epigen formula. It appears that the "Digestive Support" Epigen is actually the ORIGINAL Epigen 90 formula. You should ask around in the big ferret groups on facebook.
|
|
|
|
Post by raynebc on May 14, 2015 23:36:30 GMT -5
Based on what I'd heard from others' expert analysis, it's not identical to the original Epigen 90, but it's very similar. For one, they removed the chia seeds which were a prime suspect for all the digestive problems. Archetype 1 and Dream Treats are the same thing, just the latter is in a formed shape. Wysong had confirmed this when I asked them about it in an email before.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 15, 2015 3:39:10 GMT -5
You all are wonderful. I really appreciate all the advice. i am going to look into all these options and see what i come up with. I just wanted to add though that she is 7-8 yrs old and the chicken i am feeding her is always cooked. would it still be best to try and work some/ one of these meats into her diet as raw? Or if she doesnt eat them that way is it ok for me to cook an entire rat/quail/guinea pig:( and then through it in a blender? sorry if these are silly questions.. i am going to be raising my next ferret on entirely different foods. Ferrets receive their nutrients thru raw meat. They digest it better than when it is not cooked. It's the opposite with humans, they digest their food better cooked. From what I have read, cooking food for humans was a forward step in our evolution. So, stay with raw for ferrets. Ferrets have a fast digestive tract. 3-4 hours and everything has passed thru their little bodies. Ecoli takes 12 hours to incubate and Salmonella takes 8 hours. That's part of the reason, ferrets don't have to worry about raw food contaminating their systems, like we do. You could begin offering rats, quail or guinea pigs and processing it thru a blender to begin getting them use to it. The idea would be like soupie. Start it off as a soupie and slowly add slivers as they get use to the soup, and reducing the amount of soup. Once they are eating slivers, and the soup is gone, you would work on adding larger and larger pieces until they can handle the bones in larger pieces. A note of caution, never feed a live rat to a ferret. The rat is too fierce and strong. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 15, 2015 10:11:47 GMT -5
Eventually ferrets are going to lose that healthy look that you see when they r young if they stay on kibble.
|
|
