Racheldaniels Switching Thread/Mustelidmusk

[Deleted]

Yes, always start small with something new - and you can always mix a small amount of new with familiar foods. If Tucker thinks you have ruined his dinner with a tiny bit of new stuff add to his regular favorites, try putting a small taste the new food in his mouth (wipe it on his teeth so he has to lick it off. ) Do this a couple times each day. He may learn to accept the new stuff as food pretty quickly since he has adapted to raw with no trouble at all.

Lamb is a good choice - a lot of ferrets seem to like lamb.

Try serving the freeze-dried raw in bigger pieces or feed it in a slightly deeper bowl. that may help with the "escaping tidbits". I was laughing over your description.....I have seen this same behavior.

Tucker seems to have a lot more energy these days... he seems well-stabilized, and the high-protein diet is probably a big help.

-jennifer

[Deleted]

Definitely more energy lately! I found him in the box of packing peanuts last night. Rummaging around like it was his job!

The slippery elm bark pills finally came yesterday, so I'll start in with that and see how it goes for him. He's been waking me up for his breakfast soupies, but will resort to crunching LOUDLY if I'm slow to get up.

Next up on the raw mixing: beef and salmon ground meal. Chicken and salmon wasn't an issue if it was mixed in with the duck-duck-goose freeze-dried.. right now we're going through the sampler pack to see if there's anything that he absolutely cannot be convinced to try. We're on the last of those flavors and will start mixing more ground with the freeze-dried for variety.

And the larger chunks of the freeze-dried help, but he insists that they're Special and Treats Only, so I have to catch and snuggle him and let him gnaw on the pieces while I hold him. Not spoiled one little bit!

Hoping to catch him sleepy enough to get a weight this week. Also need to get in to the vet again at some point for another glucose check. Also still waiting for his dental scaler to arrive.... someday? *sigh*

[Deleted]

Awesome - you're cruising right along at the speed of light. You're headed in the right direction with feeding approach. They DO get addicted to hand feeding...... one thing that may help with learning to eat chunks of meat is putting the bigger bits on a shallow plate - like the lid to a cottage cheese container. Start with one chunk - like a treat! You can even hold him and see if he'll eat from the "plate".

If he starts taking the bigger "treat" from the plate, put about 3 bites on the"plate - separate them so he can pick each one up separately.

Most ferrets don't like sticking their faces in a bowl of meat when they first start out. Practice with that approach and let me know how it does.

Keep up the awesome work. Tucker is a lucky boy to have such a wonderful mommy

-jennifer

[Deleted]

some minor setback, I think.. I discovered dried vomit in Tuck's cage this morning. It looks really old (how did I miss it?!), but two definite spots. Mostly liquid. My husband had been tapering his carafate, but he's back on that and we'll work the slippery elm in when we have time this weekend to keep a closer eye on him.

He's still interested in his food... definitely less a fan of the beef and salmon raw diet, but still eating around one patty of the freeze-dried soup in the morning and close to that in the evening (sometimes less when he's been snacking on kibble while he waits for the soup).

Worried. Watchful.

[racheldaniels]

We're at 1670g today. Itchy as all get-out... though he IS shedding like mad currently. No new vomit. Wondering if he might have gotten some hair in his mouth from the shedding.

Eating like a pig again...

[racheldaniels]

sadness: latest glucose was 33. Dr. recommended doubling his dose. again. One thing that stood out was that it's late enough in the day that it was nearly 12 hours since his dose this morning that he was checked. Maybe I should discuss dosing three times a day instead of just two?

Tuck is zooming around. Irritated at the trip and very hungry when we got home. Ate almost a whole freeze-dried patty. Still working on getting him to accept it dried so he'll eat that when he's home alone.

[Deleted]

trying to spread the prednisolone out to 3 times per day may help. Is Tucker eating at all during the day? The vomiting could be caused by fur in the throat/shedding. Keep a close eye out for more tummy upset.
try breaking the freeze-dried raw into kibble-sized pieces. The good part about leaving out the dry stuff is that anything that is not eaten dry can be moisten for the next meal...that way, you don't have stale stuff hanging around!

In spite of the lower blood sugar for this trip, Tucker is still perky and has a good appetite. Just because blood sugar is low once in the late afternoon, it doesn't necessarily mean Tucker is low all the time...he may have had a tummy ache and therefor may have eaten less less during the day- add in the stress of a vet trip...and he may have just had a bad day.

-jennifer

[racheldaniels]

I spoke with my vet, who was about dosing three times a day.

Tuck doesn't eat a *lot* during the day when we're not there. Even though there is kibble in his bowl in the cage, and freeze-dried pieces on top, he doesn't seem to be a big fan. For a while he was eating more.. but then he upped what he was eating in the morning and evenings and seems determined that warm food is his favorite. *sigh*

It's pretty easy to gauge how much kibble he's eating since the mix has enough carbs in it that his poops are very different: small with mainly freeze-dried and HUGE if he's been eating kibble. Poops mostly small lately.

I'm at a bit of a loss to figure out how perky he SHOULD be. He's 6 and alone. He's never played much without the instigation of another ferret. But he moves around throughout the house and camps out in the cage, under the cage, in our duvet cover. If I check on him, he's alert and responsive. Not slow, not lethargic/sleepy, not weak at ALL and never flat.

Feeling demoralized. Insulinoma sucks! I so hoped he'd stabilize quickly and hold there for at least a few months, but I feel like we're forever chasing to catch up.

The good news: he's mostly on a freeze-dried raw diet now. No more vomiting, but he's up and itching a LOT. The bad news: he's not eating much during the day.

[Deleted]

remember, they do eat less on freeze-dried raw than n kibble - and the poop will be smaller.

if Tucker is addicted to warm food, feed him the warm food at a slightly cooler temperature. Warm food is more aromatic, which is usually more palatable because of the aroma is stimulating. If breakfast and dinner are not much warmer than lunch and snack food, Tucker may adopt ore of a grazing habit - more small meals throughout the day instead of big breakfast and dinner with little food in between. start the cooler breakfast/dnner over the weekend (when you are around to observe)

Regarding less activity. It's very normal for 6 year old ferrets that are by themselves to lounge around, especially since he did not grow up as a lone weasel. One thing about my kids at over 7 is that the more I engage them in activity, the more energy and strength they have. On weeks that I work a lot and spend less tie with them, they are less active...they're interest and activity levels are much higher when I spend a lot of time enriching them with stinky things, towel rides, etc.

Adding/increasing fresh raw into the diet (morning and evening feedings ) will help. Remember that ferrets get most of their energy from fat, so a little extra fat in the diet (lard, fat trimmings from raw meats, etc. may increase energy levels. Many commercial raw diets (freeze-dried and frozen) are a little light on fat for ferrets. A little extra fat may help to increase energy level.

Vanadium (vanoxyl) helps with utilization of insulin, which may also increase energy levels.

One thing that everyone who has an insulinomic ferret should know about is hydrolyzed whitefish. Hydrolyzed whitefish does not need to be "digested" to be absorbed - it's all protein - excellect for inslinomic episodes after giving karo syrup. The whitefish is powdered, so it can be added to other foods easily to provide additional, almost instantly available protein. I can provide details this weekend.

One thing to keep in mind is that experimentation (changes in routine) with insulinomic ferrets should be when you will be around the house to see house things are going.

Itching - probably adrenal activity. Are you giving any Reishi? That usually helps quite a bit with histamine reactions.

It sounds like things are going pretty well....I know, insulinoma does suck. Just because the pred had to be increased does not mean that he will continue to require increases frequently. Hang in there - every case is different.

-jennifer

[racheldaniels]

I'm curious to learn more about the reiki and hydrolyzed whitefish!

He had a pretty good weekend. More active than he has been recently.. he was hopping around and trying to swarm my pant legs. I call that progress...

[Deleted]

Apologies for getting a bit behind. The weekend was a bit of a shock - we lost a friend to suicide - too bizarre and extremely distracting.

I will provide info on the reishi and whitefish later today - trying to get to working this morning, but I'm movnig a bit slow - allergies!

-jennifer

[racheldaniels]

so sorry about the loss of a friend *hugs*

[Deleted]

Many Thanks for your concern. It's been a tough week.

Reishi:
Reishi helps with itching because it has natural antihistamine properties. In ferrets, histamines are generated by adrenal gland activity, which can also result in the development of mast cell tumors. Reishi does make a substantial difference in ferret "itchies" and mast cell tumor activity. It has also been reported to help
ferret with IBD that's associated with food allergies.
Recommended brands:
New Chapter Reishi
Host Defense Reishi
Dosing - 1/4 capsule daily.
I have given 1/4 capsule 2 x daily to shrink and/or eliminate mast cell tumors. I have found that using 1/4 capsule of Reishi every other day is effective. Many recommend giving Reishi for 2 -3 weeks and then stopping for two weeks. I have given reishi for months at a time and have found that it remains effective even without "taking a break" from it. In other words, my ferrets do not seem to become immune to reishi if they receive it over a long period of time.
www.naturalnews.com/021498.html

Hydrolyzed whitefish -
hydrolyzed whitefish is a "predigested protein" that is immediately absorbed int the bloodstream without requiring energy to digest the proteins. When a ferret has an insulinolmic crash, sugar (karo syrup) is given because it provides a very fast way to get glucose into the blood stream. Sugar must be followed up with protein to prevent another "crash" in blood sugar levels. The hydrolized whitefish is a good follow-up source of protein because ferrets can utilize it rapidly. This helps with stabilization.

Hydrolized white fish can be fed in soup form, but it can also be sprinkled on dry foods for a little extra protein that's readily available to help stabilize blood sugar levels.

www.seacure-protein.com/products/seacure_for_pets.html

How is Tucker doing with his feeding program these days? any new"food experiments"?

-jennifer

[Deleted]

Thanks for the additional information!

Tuck nearly died Tuesday morning and I'm kicking myself for not being a good mommy. We've been living in our house for YEARS now - moved in when the fur-kids were adults. We have stairs to the second floor with an open balcony. Tuck has always been Safety Ferret, trying not to get close to the stairs or anything elevated. Stout was always respectful of the space as well, so we didn't even think of potential problems when ferret-proofing.

Tuck was sleeping under the cage, blissful in the bedding he'd dragged out of the cage. I'm not sure if he got the sleep-zoomies or what, but we heard and awful thump - he'd apparently managed to blindly get through the spindles of the bannister and fell the entire distance to the landing below. My husband got there first to find him still wrapped in the bedding, looking totally lost and stunned up at him.

We were ready to head to the emergency room (and still are), but he never made a peep. He didn't seem pained or uncomfortable at all. He cut his chin. That's all... if we had seen any other signs, we would have been in the car and out the door. But.. his appetite and activity afterwards was perfectly normal. Who am I kidding? I'll probably take him in this week just to make absolutely sure.

My heart rate is still not back to normal. We've put plexiglass shields on the bannister now. Ugh. I feel so terrible!

In other news: we're experimenting with different types of freeze-dried from Stella and Chewy's. He's skeptical of the chicken nuggets and told me this morning where I could stick the lamb, even with just a little bit. He'll eat the chicken if it's at a low level. Weird since he never fussed at the Primal frozen nuggets mixed in. We're still 'tricking' him into eating non-soup freeze-dried food. Though he doesn't seem to complain about the wysong, he's also not getting a lot of it in the mixture yet - maybe 25-30% currently.

*sigh*

off to call the vet...

[Deleted]

OMG - I'm really glad Tuck seems to be doing OK - I know of another ferret who did this and had no injuries, so chances are things are OK since he's acting normally. Be sure to watch for bruising - especially around the stomch (spleen area) although I would expect you would already know if Tucker had injured his spleen.

No matter what we do, accidents happen - always at the most unexpected time. I've come close to stepping on my kids at times....they can dart right under your feet when you're walking...then there was the time I knocked the door off the FN cage and it could have fallen on one of the brats.....etc., etc., etc.

You can mix some Stella and Chewies in with the Archetypal-I. It's all about sneaking things in slowly, making them smaller so they are harder to "pick out", making them smell similar by storing them together.

Please keep us posted on Tucker's report from the vet. I'm sending healing thoughts for Tucker even though it sounds like he's fine (your'e probably in worse shape than he is!)
-jennifer