All readers,
Many many people and this includes many, many vets, do not realize that
when a ferret feels ill, depressed or is some kind of pain, their response
is very often to STOP EATING!!  As my good friend at FFS told me "A FERRET
MUST EAT AND DRINK TO LIVE".  You CANNOT wait until their medical or
emotional problem is totally resolved.  Ferrets go down quickly when they
stop eating and drinking.  They will get dehydrated and that is life
threatening.  The longer they are without adequate food and water, the less
they are likely to start eating and drinking enough on their own-the sicker
they get, too.  Their not eating and drinking will exacerbate their medical
and other problems!
 
You take the ferret to your vet because he/she has virtually stopped eating
and drinking.  The medical profession is trained to treat causes like
disease processes, injuries etc.  They often are not aware that the
domestic ferret will stop eating when disturbed by physical OR emotional
problems like a change in their life -(moving to a new home, new people,
loss of a companion,loss of anything they percieve as significant like a
food they are used to, a toy,or when they are ill with a cold, ECE (of
course), coccidia, helicobacter,hairball or other intestinal blockages or
slow downs, CHF (congestive heart failure-get the bad fluid out and the
good fluids and food in at the same time!  :o)---)and there are so many
more problems that may cause a ferret to stop eating and drinking.  THEY
MUST EAT AND DRINK TO SURVIVE!!!
 
OF COURSE the medical or physical or emotional problem must be addressed
and resolved to the best of possibilities and ASAP.  BUT meanwhile, let's
not lose the patient unnessecearily, OK????  Know about DUCK SOUP???  It is
absolutely essential to the long term potential survival of a ferret in
your care.  If you do not know about it, ask on the FML and you will be
sent everybody's favorite rendition of it.  Pick your own or make up your
own from the excellent recommendations you will receive.  But find one now,
while your ferret is well.
 
A ferret needs the liquid supplementation of a DUCK SOUP variety after
surgeries, when ill, a change in their life, loss, etc. and all the above.
The most significant thing you can do for a ferret with ECE (Serious
diahrreal disease that is still sweeping the nation), is to FEED them. It
will hasten their recovery and probably result in less GI tract damage done
from the disease as it runs its course. THEY will NOT want to eat because
they will not feel like eating. But it will make them feel better when they
do. You are the MOMMY and DADDY. You have to know best. Take it from me and
thousands of others who have learned, and keep them eating all the time.
I will be happy to send my simple rendition of DUCK SOUP to any and all who
request it. As well as Veterinarian composed literature on ECE and other
ferret diseases.   God bless and keep 'em eating!  Jan at Gracie's Place
[Posted in FML issue 2619]