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Post by katooshkit on Jun 25, 2012 22:03:50 GMT -5
My rescue ferret Moosie has been a bit problematic recently. She caught my flu about two months ago and lost a lot of weight and refused to eat. She weighed 440grams. When i got her she didnt have much of an appetite at all...she was fed on bread and milk and a supermarket kibble. She is one year old and the vet said she is healthy, my vet is Dr Vella who is a leading exotic ferret knowledgeable ferret here in Australia. I was given antibiotics for the flu and A/D canned food to force feed her with and to get her weight up. She improved but never really fattened up or regained a good appetite. I would say she is anorexic. Now im on the point of breaking, stressing i could lose her because she just doesnt want to eat. So im now force feeding her again with the A/D and getting her hydrated with water. I really need to fatten her up, what can i do? I feed her twice a day usually so should i feed her every two hours for now?
Thanks in advance!
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Post by kpaz on Jun 25, 2012 22:09:39 GMT -5
What is she eating? Can you get Access to oxbow carnivore care?
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Post by katooshkit on Jun 25, 2012 22:14:19 GMT -5
Well normally she eats kangaroo/beef mince and hearts, livers and giblets, intestine. I recently got them off kibble too. Im not sure what the Oxbow stuff is?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2012 22:24:58 GMT -5
ok I'm only new at this too but have u tried duck soup www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=1931 there more information there Kibble soup (this is the usa so you might have to modife it as you might not be able to get the same ingredients here ) I also would say look at this www.ferret-world.com/ She Australian too she lives here in syd Just like you and me so here information can be more relevant to the Aussie owner I also like this site for the same reason www.all-about-ferrets.com/
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2012 22:28:24 GMT -5
oxbow carnivore care I dont think you can buy it in Australia
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2012 23:07:05 GMT -5
I am dealing with sort of the same kind of issue with feedings. if yours is eating raw, (mine is not yet), you can grind it into the same texture as the a/d and feed the same way as you were doing the a/d. I am having to feed every 4 hours round the clock right now to get weight on her and keep her blood glucose levels up.
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Post by Heather on Jun 25, 2012 23:13:20 GMT -5
You mention beef/kangaroo mince. Is this a commercial grind that contains all essential nutrients including bone? Do you know what the fat content of your grinds are? Your vet says she's healthy now, or before she got the flu? How long was the antibiotics to be taken? You mention that she doesn't want to eat on her own...was she eating raw willingly before she got sick or was she in the process of switching? I'm sorry for all the questions but they're necessary. Do you have photos of her now? The way to fatten a ferret is to get them to eat regular meals (I feed my sickies 3x a day) and increase their fat content. I've had a number of carnivores who do not do well on beef (I'm not saying this is the case, there may be something else going wrong at the moment). I won't go as far as to say they're allergic but they don't thrive. If she will eat more species appropriate that you can easily get might make it easier for her to digest her food (beef, bison, elk, emu are all heavy hard to digest meats). Another thing that seems to occur is if the change in diet occurs at the same time as the illness ferrets appear to associate this to their diet. It's like, if you've ever been very, very sick...sometime if its with a food that you were eating at the time, it becomes an associated cause. It doesn't have to been the actual cause of you being ill, but your mind associates it with being ill. We've had a number of ferret where this has occurred. My Yuri did this. It took me months to convince him to eat his raw diet. There are a couple of thoughts. Keep us posted as to your progress ciao
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Post by Sherry on Jun 25, 2012 23:19:26 GMT -5
Right now she'll likely need feedings every 2-3 hrs during the day. Out of curiosity- how are her stools? Do they look blackish or grainy? What's the colour, does she paw at her mouth, or scrub her face along the floor(other than right after she's eaten)? How active is she?
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Post by katooshkit on Jun 26, 2012 0:00:35 GMT -5
Ok. The vet did a healthcheck on her when she had the flu and he said that despite her poor upbringing she was in very good health, apart from the flu. Antibiotics were taken for two weeks. The beef mince does include some bone, but not much at all. My others refuse to eat the edible or crushed bones for now so im trying to ease them onto it. I add powdered egg shell to their mince once a week. Before she contracted my flu she had been on raw for about 3-4 months but with kibble. Its only the last month i have taken the kibble out. Well her stools look pretty normal. They are a bit orangey coloured because I recently have been giving her more egg and the A/D canned food. She also had a little bit of organ yesterday. She isnt very active but her eyes look bright. She is sleeping a lot and i have brought her inside because its warmer. Behaviour wise she is acting pretty normal, she has always been a lazy snuggly girl. I did notice her anus looks red though, why could this be? Could it be because of the lack of food she has been eating? It took me a few days to understand she wasnt eating with the others because she started losing the weight.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2012 9:03:02 GMT -5
How many "others" are there? I would put her and her closest buddy if she has one in a seperate area so I could closely monitor her food intake. She's likely lazy and snuggly because her energy level is poor. As Heather mentioned the meats she is being offered are not typical prey types. I would turn to more rodent and or poultry meats as well as add much more calcium, magnesium, zinc sources on a daily basis. Egg shells once a week is not going to be sufficient. We have to remember that these animals natural diet means bones eaten at every meal. I cannot say enough that fat is readily accepted by ferrets, is digested well and has beneficial energy (calories). Unsalted lard has been working well for me for years. Fed free choice.
Sorry to say that A/D is basically a last ditch stop gap food for extremely I'll animals. It is not meant to sustain them and the last label I read on an A/D can showed it to be chock full of carbohydrate sources. You'd offer her better food if you simply blended or pureed some mice and or chicken and whole raw eggs and then spoon fed her. If she comes from a kibble background she is likely addicted to sweeteners also, so you may be able to entice her with a teens drizzle of honey into the puree. Don't prolong the honey use. Fade it out after a few days. The honey and fat ought to boost her metabolism and fire up her appetite. Chicken necks and backs and wings all have high fat content as well as edible bone so would be good sources for her.
Get a fishing scale. Digital, hanging the kind that sportsmen use in their tackle boxes. Weigh her daily. I use a shopping baggie which every ferret thinks is a fun place to hide and is light enough that it won't distort their weight reading. Chart her weight.
Another thing to help is to offer fresh water changed twice a day offered from a deep wide heavy crock! Way too many ferrets are dehydrated because drip bottles do not ever match their water needs.
Check her teeth and gums closely if she hasn't been eating well her teeth may be hurting.
Good luck.
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Post by Sherry on Jun 26, 2012 9:55:17 GMT -5
From what you've said- I'd be adding 1/2 tsp eggshell powder to every 8 oz of meat, especially if the bone content of the mince is as low as it seems to be. Their calcium intake appears to be really low, and ferrets have a higher need of calcium than a lot of other carnivores.
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Post by Heather on Jun 26, 2012 10:44:54 GMT -5
Correct me if I'm wrong but 'roo meat is lean right? I think I can remember that meat being used for a weight loss for dogs (actually I believe it was 'roo tails, Urban Carnivore...that was a few years ago though). Remember you want to put weight on gradually. Josiesmom is right, weighing is the best way to track. I weigh monthly unless I've got a sicky to track. I've got a wee girlie that I just imported from the UK...just a wee stick of a thing (a total wild thing though, energy to burn). She feels to be nothing but bone, sinew and muscle. She's not a big she ferret either, but she weighs in at a hefty 2lbs and change. I was floored. The thing is we're lousy at gauging weights, so a mechanical means helps show us we're in the right direction. Sherry's right you need more calcium. The diet she had before deprived her of a lot of building block nutrients, she's going to need to build those up., You mention rescue but is she altered? Which is also going to be an issue for both weight gain, calcium needs and fluctuating appetites. Just another few thoughts to turn over in your head ciao
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Post by Sherry on Jun 26, 2012 12:32:19 GMT -5
You're right Heather- 'roo meat is very lean.
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Post by Heather on Jun 26, 2012 14:15:31 GMT -5
I would go for fattier meats, duck, goose...even chicken. Beef isn't bad, some pork cuts are better though. ciao
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Post by unclejoe on Jun 26, 2012 14:22:20 GMT -5
I realize the kibble may not have been the best, but you could try to see if she will still eat that. Something is better than nothing. Then you could try making soups with it and mix in the raw. I've been feeding mine soups for 2 years because I just can't get them to eat plain raw anything. Their soups are about half ground kibble and half ground turkey, chicken or pork.
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