We recently adopted two ferrets from a loving home because their family was
being relocated to the No-Ferret Zone.  Truffle did great for the first
five days then she decreased her playtime and pursued digging at the ferret
barrier (our ferrets have access to the bedrooms and bathrooms only).  I
recently told y'all about Donnie's sudden illness, which distracted us from
Truffle.  After dealing with Donnie, we noticed that Truffle appeared to
not be eating and was losing weight - she is extremely tiny as it is.
She wants nothing to do with the food her previous owners told us they eat
(Iams Kitten Chicken formula).  (although now I have two older ferrets
hooked on it - man, you want to see a ferret gain weight!  Max looks like
a big ole pear now).
 
Sunday she took a few steps outside the cage and collapsed in the hallway.
She was obviously dehydrated.  I had some chicken baby food on hand and
proceeded to force feed her that, water and Ferretvite.  I steadily
increased the amount of food & water I was giving her throughout Sunday,
feeding her every 3 hours.  She was eating about 1 ounce of chicken food
plus 6 cc of water.  I took her to the vet in Mon.  AM and they gave her
fluids sub-q.  We had also put her on antibiotics and vitamins, believe it
or not this fuzzball hates Ferretvite - that's a first for my bunch!  Well,
she has gained weight and I actually believe she weighs more now than she
did when we got her 3 weeks ago.
 
I have soaked Pro Plan Chicken formula in water and then mushed it up and
added it to the chicken baby food to get bulk in her system, and some extra
protein.  We have noticed now that she has achieved a good working weight
that she has actually reduced how much she wants to eat.  She is eating
only about 1.5 ounces every six to eight hours now.  Finally yesterday she
started playing some (when she thinks I am not watching her).  How do I get
her to want crunchy food again?
 
Everytime she gets to a not-so-mushed piece she finds a way to spit this
out.  I have tried soaking the kitten food and mixing it with the other
preparation, nope - no go - she absolutely did not like that.  This is one
difficult and finicky ferret.  All of our other adoptions have been rescues
or pet shop ferrets, so they were very happy to be in our home.  Unluckily
for us, Truffle and Nougat came from a very loving family.  Nougat has
adjusted fine and has become very attached to Donnie.  But Truffle is not
happy with our house yet.  All of our other ferrets love her.  Anyone know
how to get a ferret through those homesick blues?
 
There is one thing we have never seen before showing up on Nougat.  We
have noticed that we keep finding these things (scabs??) on his skin - we
noticed that he had one when we had a "playdate" prior to the adoption.
Now we are finding more.  Any ideas - I found a large black looking thing
on his back today...
 
Thanks....
[Posted in FML issue 2922]