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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2011 7:31:18 GMT -5
Before i start reading your newest post before this one.
They started eating chicken wing bones, i'm cutting them up very very small but they are eating them. I can hear it from the other room! YAY!
It did not start after the candy incident. Its off and on with her sorta since we got her. The first night she was here she had normal brown poop and its been off and on since. Its kinda the reason we wanted to start this. She never seemed crazy about the kibble we were feeding her, prior she was eating cat food. The red is just one little spot if at all i can't be sure if its blood. It does kinda scare me but i figured the diet would help it or fix it. She is kinda bad about pooping around the house and when she does its never green or red seems like its only like that at night. Her poop is frequently runny but once again its off and on since we got her.
It may sound bad but she never ever shows any signs of distress at all. She is so loving and playful we just thought she was getting used to us, the ferrets and the new kibble diet. It just hasnt changed much over the month we have been doing this. Let me know if you are nervous about this and we can take her to the vet.
I have some probiotic that i could use, i have used before but stopped since the diet switch.
Everything is going so well at this point. Dids has SOOOO much energy and is super playful now. I'm sure they are still really getting to know each other but i have noticed such a major change in Dids that i could cry. He was getting so chubby and lazy ( another reason we wanted to start this diet). He is almost 5 at this point so we were getting nervous he was just getting old and not as playful but we were wrong. He is almost as playful as the two babies. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH I'M SO PROUD OF THESES ANIMALS. Its been alot of work so far but the pay off is absolutely worth every extra minute out of my day to feed them the right food.
We will keep increasing the size of chunks and bones. Thanks again!!!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2011 11:30:31 GMT -5
I am so proud of them too! That's awesome news about the bone! As for the poop, I wouldn't worry too much. You haven't had her all that long and honestly my ferrets had awful poops for the first couple months. The green on and off is most likely stress related and these guys can get stressed pretty easily, the probiotics are a great thing to add though! The other mentors mentioned if it seems redder than normal, it probably has a lot to do with the dyes in the candy they ate - so it should go back to normal soon. If the poops continue like this, I would definitely mention it at the next vet visit and get a stool culture done, but in the mean time, I think it's fine I am so glad you are noticing such positive results I've never had ferrets that weren't fed raw, but the health differences truly are incredible! The switch is definitely hard work but it's worth it and I'm so happy you've stuck to it so well
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2011 19:05:37 GMT -5
So far the three of them have eaten a whole chicken wing + 1/2 and 6 ice cubes of soupie!!!! I'm way done thinking they aren't eating enough. I'm so glad that part is out of my mind.
Not whole wings but all cut up and stuff.
I will try some cut up hearts tomorrow.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2011 22:39:40 GMT -5
That's excellent!! and yes I would say they are definitely eating enough Let me know how the heart goes
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2011 19:03:12 GMT -5
i spaced out on the hearts today, its been busy.
A few weeks ago Dids threw up, once. Didn't seem like a big deal at the time it was a decent size piece of food kinda so i figured it just didn't sit right with him. Well i have seen him throw up 4 times tonight. Its not discolored or weird looking. It looks just like mushy chicken, which is kinda expected. he is acting a little funny as well.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2011 23:47:26 GMT -5
I'm sorry to say but please take him to a vet immediately. Vomiting four times plus acting weird makes me think blockage. And given the candy incident, it could very well be one. Give him pumpkin and vaseline and get him to a vet NOW. Go to a 24 hour clinic if you have to. Vomiting four times is NOT normal and if it's a blockage, vomiting means it's a bad one. Get a barium Xray to be sure. Better safe than sorry, blockages can kill ferrets in a matter of hours, so dont risk waiting Please keep me updated, I'll keep my fingers crossed for him
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Post by Heather on Sept 17, 2011 1:47:32 GMT -5
Just popping in on this one.....please get this wee one to the vet ASAP. I agree with your mentor, this sounds to me like a blockage of some sort. A ferret is not designed to vomit and to have them vomit that number of times within such a short period of time would be considered serious. Please keep us posted... Thank you and good luck ciao
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2011 8:07:46 GMT -5
OK here is the scoop, been real busy lately with issues around the house. Still no hot water after 3 days, anyway.
I didn't take the poor boy to the vet the evening of the incident. Prolly shouldn't have but i gave him some pumpkin that evening. What this showed me was the next morning, when i took him. That i found some larger than normal things in his poop. It honestly didn't look like hair, Baby Legs pooped some hair once and it didn't look like this. It was kinda big on one side and it was very long, i really think it was a chunk of food with some skin on it. I can't be sure because when i was going through it i tossed it down the toilet. I fed them, and he ate so that was a good sign. After about an hour or so he pooped again and it seemed very normal. I took him to the vet and nothing came up so i'm very confident that he go it out of his system.
So far this morning i cut up three hearts and poured soup over it. I dont think baby legs is eating it but cici has eaten some of the heart pieces. I might try it again tonight and just keep putting it in their food until i see the three of em eat instead of just cici. Could the hearts be a problem if i'm pouring soup containing hearts (2) over it?
They have been eating every little piece of the chicken wings except for the giant bone that i'm too lazy to smash with a hammer and my scissors dont cut. Someone always hides it and it does appear to be chewed on somewhat but i'm not sure who is taking it.
I think i'm going to stick with chicken and pork at this point until i can get them eating hearts and livers. I have some more questions about the amout of hearts and liver, you said something about 3 ferrets could easily eat like 20 hearts? That seems like a whole lot, but we can deal with that when the time comes.
Thanks for the replies about our old man but he is fine now.
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Post by Heather on Sept 18, 2011 8:19:58 GMT -5
I'm glad to see that the problem resolved itself, I would continue feeding a bit of pumpkin over the next couple of days to make sure there isn't anything else left up there that shouldn't be (this has been known to happen so just keep a close eye on your wee one). I will let your mentor answer the rest of your post. Give your wee ones a big hug ciao
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2011 9:36:33 GMT -5
thanks for the help and concern : D
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2011 11:53:50 GMT -5
I too am happy that he's okay like Heather said, definitely keep up with the pumpkin and keep an eye on his poops to see if anything else comes out over the next few days. I've actually see hairballs come out in the poop looking like slimely white things resembling worms or kind of like you described. The hair gets all twisted up and covered in mucous from their digestive tract so that it doesn't resemble hair anymore. So it could have very well been a hairball that got stuck but then managed to unlodge. It's hard to say for sure though, just glad he's okay! As for the heart, you really can't overdue it on the heart, they need all the taurine they can get. So soup with heart in it over other heart is perfectly fine The 20 hearts thing was just an estimate and I was referring to chicken hearts (the tiny ones). It was probably an over estimate too now that I'm actually picturing how much that would be. I feed a mix of hearts (turkey - which are big, chicken, and pork) so for their "heart" meal once a week my 2 ferrets get 3 cut up turkey hearts and 5-10 chicken hearts or 5 smaller chunks of pork heart. You really just have to play around with amounts until you're not ending up wasting too much. Sounds like they're doing great with the bone! I want to make sure we don't over-do the bone (since they are still getting ground up bone in the soup) so lets decrease the amount of bone you're putting in the soup a little bit. If they're getting too much bone, their poops will be dry and hard. Pork and chicken is definitely a good start let's get them eating some hearts and hopefully some organ and then we'll diversify their tastes. they should have at least 3 proteins, the more the better. What else do you have access to for the future? Beef, lamb, goat, quail, rabbit would be some examples.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2011 22:37:21 GMT -5
How did the hearts go?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2011 8:04:03 GMT -5
The hearts went ok. I cut up three and there were a few pieces left over but i'm pretty sure Cici and Dids ate the hearts and Baby Legs ate the soupie. I dont monitor them too close while they eat cause i leave the cage open while they have food so they eat but i can't be positive who eats what exactly.
I will try and ate a heart every day or so just so they get used to it being there.
I made some thick soup with some ground chicken mixed in it but none of them seemed to eat much of it last night. So i'm going to keep up with the liquid soup with chunks in it for now.
Liver - I normally put two small ones in the soup or one large one. If i cut up a small or and put it in with the soup is that ok too?
I might start, if its ok, putting a cut up heart and a cut up liver in their food for a few days so maybe they will get used to it. Sound ok?
I just want them to get these hearts and organs in their system slowly so i can stop with the soup. Baby Legs doesn't seem too confident with chunks that i can tell. I normally see him eat right when i put the food in the cage, licks up the soup but after that i'm not sure if he is eating any of the chunks. I will try and keep a closer eye on them while they eat.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2011 17:31:34 GMT -5
Knowing who eats what is definitely helpful but can be tricky! See if you can get a good idea of who will eat what and then give me a list of which ferret is eating what currently and we can go from there Sounds like a pretty good start with the hearts I'm fine with you putting a bit of heart and liver in with their food each day, at this point I don't think were going to be overdoing it with the heart or liver so let's just see if we can't get them to try some. you can always pick up some kidney too. My girls really like pork kidney and it's a good stepping stone organ for liver. Since you're going to be feeding them 50% liver and 50% other organ once per week, they'll need to eat kidney/spleen/etc eventually anyways. I'll have you work on this for the rest of the week but then I'm going to recommend you start trying some different protein types. I don't want them getting imprinted on just the chicken and pork or it's going to be a very difficult time getting them to try new protein types. So your "homework" (haha I know how cruel of me!) over the next few days is 1) watch the ferrets closely and give me a list of who is eating what and 2) have a look around your local stores / your girlfriends work and let me know what other "protein types" are readily available to you (beef, lamb, goat, quail, rabbit,etc). And then of course keep me updated on the hearts / organs. Their poops shouldn't get too yucky because they are still getting the bone in the soup on top of the hearts/organs but I find that adding extra pumpkin helps keep everything good. And oil for bribery on organs / hearts is never a bad idea either
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2011 20:10:33 GMT -5
sounds good
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