Commercial Diet for IBD?

[FuzzedbyFerts]

Hi - 
I have a 3 yr old fert monster who is showing possible signs of IBD and I am looking for recommendations/thoughts about commercial diets! I read Koda's thread, which I found very helpful in terms of basic ingredients and supplements, but I do not feed raw to my kiddos. I got as close as I could - they are currently getting Wysong Epigen 90, Wysong Au Jus and Wysong Archetype I. My sick fert is presenting with a single enlarged lymph node in his abdomen, slow weight loss, a rough coat, weird poops and mild loss of energy - his bloodwork and everything else checks out. My vet recommended limited ingredient cat foods plus meat-only canned in turkey, duck and rabbit. I found a bunch of limited ingredient diets, and am leaning towards Nature's Variety Turkey (turkey, tapioca, peas, 40% protein). Also, is diet change enough for these guys or is pred required as well?? I wasn't clear about that. I had to put a dog down due to side effects from long-term pred use (she had Addison's) so I'm very hesitant to go that route.   My monster's case isn't as bad as Koda's, so it may just be a sensitivity rather than true IBD. 

Also, a possible warning - my vet has had three other ferrets present with the same symptoms and they are also on Epigen 90. I'm wondering if there is actually too much protein in Epigen?? Ack!

[Deleted]

How long as your ferret been on his current diet?

There isn't really any such thing as too much protein for a ferret unless they have renal disease. They are designed specifically to eat a high protein, high fat diet due to their short, fast digestive tract. No really enough information to draw assumptions on those other ferrets and the Epigen, we'd need to know how long they had been eating it and a slew of other things. Generally though switching to a new food, especially one as rich as the Epigen will cause loose stools and possibly some other short term issues. Epigen is the best ferret kibble on the market currently. However, if your ferret has a specific sensitivity to a particular protein such as chicken, it could be a problem.

Has the vet suggested doing diet trials where you feed one protein for a week or two to see how the ferret's stools and health condition is, then switch to a different protein and try to rule out the problem one(s)?

Also one thing to consider is your ferret may be suffering from adrenal disease. Adrenal disease and IBD often happen together, it's believed that the stress adrenal disease puts on the body may cause the IBD to occur. Adrenal disease can cause weight loss and wasting, fur loss or rough coat, IBD or IBD like symptoms, lethargy, behavioral changes including aggression, excessive itchiness, difficulty urinating, and an odd smell to name a few things.

If he had adrenal disease that was causing the IBD flare up, treating the adrenal may greatly help the IBD, or it may not and you may still need to go on pred. Treating IBD through diet is the best first thing to try of course. A 3 month lupron trial would be an inexpensive way to test for adrenal to see if he responds positively to it, it doesn't hurt him if he doesn't have it and the blood panel test for adrenal is both expensive and can pop up false negatives.

Also, I'm not sure but someone else may be able to chime in, but Reishi Mushrooms are used for other forms of inflammation, they may be able to be used for IBD treatment as well before resorting to pred.

[FuzzedbyFerts]

He's been on this diet for awhile! (>6 months) I am switching to the limited ingredient diet to try to determine if that is the problem, and if so, what exactly it is that bothers him. The ultrasound I had done showed absolutely nothing in terms of adrenal or other organ problems... they checked adrenals, kidneys, liver, pancreas, spleen - everything is well within normal size-wise with no signs of cysts, tumors, etc. Just that one enlarged lymph node. I suppose I could try the lupron, but given the negative ultrasound and blood work, I'm leaning towards diet-related issues. If the diet doesn't clear everything up, I'll try that and the IBD supplements. I do know that the other ferrets had been on Epigen for awhile as well, although I don't know the rest of their medical story.

He does have dilated cardiomyopathy, but it's been stable for the past year or so - no fluid retention or murmur and still maintaining normal perfusion, etc. Poor guy, he just get hits with everything! My deaf fuzzy is healthy as a horse. (Although where that expression came from I have no idea... clearly never had a horse! )

[Sherry]

It does sound like he may have a chicken sensitivity. True IBD is really quite bad, however if he continues to be exposed to the trigger it could well develop. Before going to pred, try the single protein diet and see how he does. With IBD, pred isn't a long term thing. Generally they are only on it long enough to bring the severe diarrhea under control the are weaned back off it again. Good luck with your little one
The supplements that might work best with a kibble or canned diet would be reishi mushrooms, probiotics, as well as slippery elm bark syrup. The first two you could give in the wet food, or even a soup made from the kibble. The second you'd make small amounts of and store in the fridge for I think two weeks max.

[FuzzedbyFerts]

Yay for short-term only pred!

Is turkey far enough away from chicken or should I try rabbit? I don't know how closely the meats are "related". I've been giving them every flavor of meat and organ canned I can find, but I was going to limit them to rabbit, turkey and duck only as those meats are the "base" protein in the limited ingredient diets I found.

I'll start introducing supplements after they've adjusted to the new food... don't want to change too many things at once!

[Deleted]

Turkey is a different enough protein from chicken you can try using it.