In response to the person wondering if too much pedialyte is bad for
ferrets, well I had the same concern so I asked my vet.  I had a ferret
that had medical problems for 3 years that no vet (I have a team of them
<g>) could diagnose.  Series of strokes and seizures, but he did not have
insulinoma, nor any other medical problem that we could ascertain.  Anyway,
he developed this love of Pedialyte, and I started giving him a waterbottle
of it to him every day (one of the small bottles, 8 oz I think).  Well
the weird thing is that after I started giving it to him daily, the
number/frequency of strokes diminished markedly.  He even went almost 6
months without one, when before it was almost an every other week thing.
So anyway, I was worried about the amount of it, and I asked the vet.  She
said that there really is no problem with it.  She said he should still
have access to water as well, because water is cleansing.  She also said
that there is sugar in Pedialyte so for insulinomic ferrets it probably
should be limited.  Other than that, they can drink as much of it as they
want.  Now, I give pedialyte to any ferret that isn't 100% healthy.  It's
excellent for ferrets with colds, because many ferrets with colds (stuffed
noses) will refuse to drink, and you may not even notice this until they're
dehydrated.  The pedialyte is enticing, so they forget that they're stuffy,
they just want their treat.  I also have an adrenal baby here who is blind
as a bat, she was surrendered to me at age 7 and was pretty confused by the
whole thing.  I started to give it to her to reduce the stress and give her
something fun to do, now she *insists* on having it daily.  If I forget,
she goes to her bowl and "looks" for it, then walks around and comes back
to the bowl, thinking it will have magically appeared there.... It breaks
my heart, so I just give it to her every day as her treat for being so
special and sweet.
 
So, go ahead and give as much as you like.  It gets costly, I recommend that
you go to a drug store like Eckerd or Rite Aid and get the generic version.
My ferrets prefer the Fruit flavor (orange in color) to all other flavors.
 
Good luck! :)
 
Kymberlie Becker Barone
Director, Pennsylvania Ferret Rescue Association
Montgomery County Branch
Visit Our Website! http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ferretlady
"Forget Puppy Love...There's Nothing Greater than Ferret Love!" tm
[Posted in FML issue 2375]