I'm a believer!
 
Showed Bob Church's Chicken Gravy recipe (FML dated Dec.  29, 1998) to my
Vet for her opinion.  She had only two concerns:
 
1) the amount of sugars was too high for a ferret with insulinomas (but
   that's easily adjusted)
2) the possibility of the ferret swallowing sharp bone or eggshell fragments
   if the blender doesn't pulverize them adequately - she's seen too many
   perforated intestines from dogs chewing on bones.
 
Since my blender is just an old household machine, not very powerful, I ran
the "gravy" through twice - before cooking, and after - and then strained
it through a metal seive to make sure there were no pieces of bone or
eggshell large enough to cause any problems.  I cut the amount of honey and
nutrical in half, and used oatmeal instead of bran (easier to find....).
 
Everything got frozen in ice-cube trays to make servings easier.  :)
 
I started Gaoth and Bandit on the gravy Saturday, January 2.  Both have
insulinoma.  Bandit had surgery to remove his left adrenal last September,
and the pancreatic tumor was found as a "bonus" and removed.  He was
started on pred 2 months later when his rear end started getting the
"wobblies," and is up to 0.7ml pred BID.  Glucose last measured at about
54.  Gaoth has had both adrenals removed, in separate surgeries, and we
decided to not put her through surgery again when the insulinoma was
discovered.  She's very small, and never has been strong, and we felt that
a shorter but sweet life would be better than risking her in a third
surgery.  Her last glucose measurement was 46.  She's been on 1ml pred BID
for over a month, and has been gradually fading.  Both eat Totally Ferret.
 
Took them in to have their glucose checked today, one week after starting
the gravy supplement.  Nothing else had been changed in their maintenance.
 
Weight is slightly up on both of them.
 
Bandit's glucose measured at 64 - up 10 points.  Gaoth's measured 68 - up
22 points!!  And both of them are showing improvement in energy levels and
attitude.
 
Now if I can just find me a good, used industrial/restaurant blender at a
decent price to make preparing the gravy easier.... LOL
 
Carla Smith
WhyNot? Ferrets
www.whynotferrets.com
[Posted in FML issue 2551]