Help!  This is long and rambling...
 
Ok, I've spent hours searching the archives and other sites for answers,
and I give up!  My regular ferret-vet won't be back in until Monday,
and I don't trust the other vet's knowledge, or rather, lack of, in
ferret-related issues, and I'm so frazzled by her latest illness and my
poor vet's office is going nuts with all my phone calls I'm trying all
avenues to find help.
 
Here goes:
 
My darling almost 8-year-old-girl Dweezil (yes, Dweezil again) is
currently being treated for ulcers.  I noticed she'd stopped eating her
crunchies a couple weeks ago, and upon taking her to the vet I found
she'd lost almost 30% of her weight since last October (I thought she'd
just blown her winter coat and was just kinda skinny, not emaciated!),
she's not 'grinding' her teeth per se, but more like a 'chattering'
motion with her mouth open without making a sound, and a lot of
chin-rubbing and dark diarrhea, considering how light-colored her
food is.
 
The 'bad' vet I went to at first was no help at all (her regular vet's
not in on Fridays; my day off from work), he just told me to keep feeding
her Duck Soup and bring her back in a week to see if she'd gained weight!
So I did a lot of reading and thinking and *light bulb* 'ulcers!' so I
took her back to her regular ferret vet on Monday and he suspects ulcers
and/or hairballs, or both.  She's now getting a suspension of Amoxi,
Carafate and Pepcid, 0.5mL bid x21 days, and also Laxatone bid to see if
she does pass a hairball.
 
I've been finding a lot of differing info about this, and it seems I
should be giving the meds anywhere from 15-45 mins prior to feeding for
proper absorption and protective/coating action.  What's the proper
length of time prior to feeding?
 
I'm also wondering, that since she's only getting the meds twice a day,
but I'm feeding her more like four times a day (all she's eating now is
Duck Soup, so every 6 hours, roughly; hard to do with a 10-1/2 hour a day
job, lots of rushed trips home on lunch and help from the other half),
should I be giving her just Carafate before the other feedings?  It would
seem that she needs the Carafate prior to *each* feeding to help with the
coating/protective action, no?  Not just during the twice-a-day meds?
 
And if that's the case, how much Carafate should I give, and how long
prior to feeding?  Due to where I work, I have access to generic
sucralfate suspension, 1gram/10mL unit dose cups; can this be adjusted
for proper dosage for a barely-over-a pound ferret?  Or will I need to
spend more money at the vet to get the proper dilution?  And how should
the suspension be kept once opened?  In the fridge?  And how long does
it keep?
 
Also, the Amoxi/Carafate/Pepcid suspension I have from the vet seems to
be bubblegum flavor (since I've unfortunately been showered with it, I've
tasted it) and she hates it.  Is there another flavor they seem to take
to better?
 
Lastly, I've just mixed up and frozen another *huge* batch of Duck Soup
in ice cube trays only to read now that the Ensure shouldn't be added
until after the cube has been defrosted/lightly heated in the microwave,
since it's not meant to be heated.  Too late.  I already mixed it all
in.  Is the batch useless now?  Should I not 'nuke' the cubes and let one
defrost in the fridge and then warm to room temp right before feeding?
And is unsweetened soymilk safe to add to thin it down even more?  Or
is unflavored Pedialyte a better choice?  Or both?  I think I added too
much Ensure and now I'm afraid she's getting too much sugar.  The recipe
is culled from a bunch of different sites/sources and it goes something
like this, approximately:
 
2 cups Iam's kitten food (her regular food), ground fine
1 cup filtered water
2 jars Gerber 2nd Stage chicken baby food
1 can Hill's a/d
2 cans vanilla Ensure Plus
This made 3 ice cube trays full.
 
I'm so full of questions and anxiety right now...
 
Thanks for any help offered... :)   Hitting 'send' now after numerous
edits/rewrites.  *sigh*
 
~daoine o', aka sick little Dweezil's mom
and Razzle, Monty-boo, and Jezebel, all thankfully healthy right now
(knock on wood)
[Posted in FML issue 4512]