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Post by elliottsmama on Sept 25, 2019 10:15:39 GMT -5
Please no judgement...though I deserve it. I have two furballs who we love. We moved into a new house and now they have a room they can play in and they're happy little duke balls. Long story, short, they have been without food for many days. My mother with terminal cancer came to stay with us and she hates their smell. I cleaned their cage really well and while doing so, raised the ramp from the top to bottom cage so they wouldn't interfere. They've been coming out and getting cuddles and such, and we've been making sure they had food and water. Not as much attention as usual, but still being looked after. I was just going to clean them and my heart sank. The ladder was still up, and I had recently moved their bowl to a corner on the bottom level where they had been pooping. So they had no food!!! They were drinking water and had access to that. They are okay right now. Not lethargic, still curious, etc, but they are starving! I gave them food and they went to town, but I cut them off because I was worried too much food on an empty stomach was dangerous.
What should I do? Anything to keep an eye out for? How much food can they have? It's a high quality kibble on the recommended list. (They used to be raw, but they constantly pooped and peed outside of the litter boxes no matter how many boxes I gave them since they stored their food there. I couldn't take the smell and inconvenience of daily blanket washing and cage scrubbing.) Help! I feel so awful.
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Post by unclejoe on Sept 25, 2019 16:01:34 GMT -5
Wow, that's awful but a mistake anyone could make. I have a story to follow... I would give them what they normally eat for a mean, and maybe give them an extra meal or 2 a day for a few days. I have only had 2 ferrets that would eat until the bowl was empty, but you don't want to over feed much. Do you keep track of their weights, and if so how much have they lost? Frank, my first insulinoma case, lost nearly 30% of his body mass before I notice he wasn't eating. Once he was dxed and started on pred, I started feeding him separately so I could monitor his intake. He got his appetite back in only a couple days, and after a week or two he gained most of his weight back.
Now the story. I once had an indoor/outdoor cat with access to the house by cat door. We left food for him inside. We had a camper, and when I had finished loading supplies from the shed, I locked the shed. 5 days later, when I opened the shed to unload the camper, OJ (orange point Siamese) came bolting out. This was Florida in summer, and that shed got hot, but not much higher than ambient. He had no food or water. He about busted the cat door off the hinge running inside.
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