Q: "One of my ferrets seems to be getting very old and frail.  Her hienie
is stick and bone.  Is there anything I can do to make her gain weight?"
 
A: You can do that Calaveras froggie thing and feed her stainless steel
(not lead!) pellets.
 
Let me describe a specific incidence I know about.  A normal sized female,
great bone tone, good muscles, well developed, great energy.  However, now
that she is "older," the bones are thin, the muscles wasted, and there is a
general lack of energy.  The little lady seems to be continuously ill, food
doesn't seem to agree with her, and simple movements cause muscular aches
and pains.  She is almost blind, no longer does much, and really gets
annoyed when youngsters bother her.  She seems to be 'wasting away;" her
hair is thin, her bones show and she no longer moves well.
 
Am I describing Fraggle, Sam Luc, or my mother?
 
Some older people die of cancer, some of heart disease, others of liver or
kidney failure.  Some just get older and thinner and smaller until they
just wear out.  It happens to some people when they are in their 60s,
others when they are in their 90s.  With some, it takes just a few years,
with others, it seems to last forever.  Ferrets are no different.
 
If you read the FML for any length of time, you are shocked at the number
of reported incidences of adrenal or pancreatic cancers.  In the majority
of cases, these diseases become a problem when the ferret is between 4 and
6 years of age and invariably are the ultimate cause of death.  From time
to time, someone will scream obscenities towards new York in the hopes that
Marshall Farms will hear them.  But the truth is, ferrets that are five
years old are OLD.  A ferret may have an eternal love of play, but they are
trapped in bodies that are only designed to last a few short years.  Our
beloved pet ferrets live 5, 6 even 7 years beyond specs, and they die of
old age diseases; mostly cancers.
 
Use humans as the model.  The American average age at death for females is
about 78 years.  What do those ladies die from?  If you exclude smoking
related deaths, the great killers are cancers and heart disease.  These are
"old age" diseases and in humans start kicking in during the fifth decade
of life, then steadily increasing thereafter.  There is no difference with
ferrets, except with ferrets the "old age' diseases start in at about the
4th year.  It is a fact of life, there is absolutely nothing you can do
about it, there is no way to accurately predict it, and it makes no
difference if the ferret came from Marshall Farms, a loving private breeder
or the surface of Mars.
 
Older ferrets may have problems that require special care, such as heart
or kidney problems.  They may have to be on a special diet.  Fraggle has
frequent puddling-like stools and she manages to squirt them out
everywhere, so I am constantly placing her in the litter box or cleaning
up after her.  She has lost her sight, fairly common in older ferrets,
and uses her nose as her eyes, so changing things around in the room can
confuse her sense of direction.  Her fur and skin is dry and thin, so she
gets cold, and I often have to rub lotions on her.  Her muscles are thin
and her bones show, but she still moves around on her own, so I allow her
to do so.
 
As for her diet, she eats Bob's Chicken Gravy 90% of the time, with some
kibble soaked in chicken broth thrown in for variety.  She carefully saves
chicken bones, carries them back to her hidey hole and slowly gnaws off the
soft ends.  She drinks a lot of fresh water (I usually add some lemon or
lime juice to it), but has lately moved from the bottle to the bowl.  Once
a week she gets pureed chicken or beef liver mixed with some Chicken Gravy
for the iron.  She gets NO medication.
 
Some older ferrets need their systems kick started and many vets prescribe
a low dose of steriods to stimulate appetite and increase energy levels.
It can help, so be open to the idea, but don't expect a miracle either.
The effect of the drugs is ultimately temporary; the problem is age and
that isn't going away.  Sooner or later, nothing can be done.
 
Finally, I have tried many different programs to get weight back on older
ferrets and none seem to have much effectiveness.  Force feeding or
offering high calorie diets MAY do more harm than good and I wouldn't
recommend ANY diet change without the approval of your veterinarian.  I
am afraid that, like with some older humans, some ferrets seem to "waste
away" as they get older, and there is not a heck of a lot you can do
about it.
 
Here are a few suggestions (and I encourage other FMLers to post some of
their own!!):
 
1. Only feed the highest quality diet. Do not save pennies on the older
   guys.
2. If you feed kibble, soften it with broth or water.
3. Make sure your ferret gets enough iron and vitamins, BUT consult a
   veterinarian FIRST; to much of a good thing can be TOXIC!
4. Don't add a lot of exotic foods which could upset the older ferret's
   digestive tract.
5. Accept some older ferrets will be thin and there is nothing you can do
   about it.
 
Bob C and 16 MO' Fartin' Ferts
[Posted in FML issue 2966]