Yes, ferrets can drink Ensure.  But there is no purpose or special benefit
to ferrets to drink Ensure.  No, it does not contain milk.
 
Instead of milk, it contains a soy protein, which is not a digestible
protein for ferrets.  (This also applies to similar products designed for
dogs & cats like Stat or Dyne... the vitamin balance is better, but
there's STILL NO PROTEIN that can be digested by ferrets!)
 
This is a long-standing, long-misunderstood debate.
 
It started when vets began to prescribe Ensure as a high calorie, vitamin
dense sick food for dogs and cats.  Ferrets came along into the vet's
practice, and since vets were taught in vet school to treat ferrets as
small cats or dogs, the vets also prescribed Ensure as a sick food
supplement for ferrets...
 
BUT...
 
Cats & dogs can digest the soy protein since their metabolic cycle is 6 to
8 hours.  A ferret's metabolic cycle is 3 to 4 hours, much too short for
the complex vegetable proteins to be broken down and absorbed before being
pooped out.
 
Many vets and long time ferret owners STILL insist on using Ensure in
ferret sick soups because it's the way they've always done it and it
doesn't appear to have killed a ferret yet.  (And a lot of web sites don't
get updated regularly!  So it's ALWAYS best to ask about something you
read on a web site before taking it as "gospel".)
 
The simple truth is... there are much better, vitamin dense (plus being
vitamin balanced for ferrets rather than humans), ANIMAL protein and
ANIMAL fat dense supplements available for use in ferret sick soups.
 
Truthfully, a MILK content would be BETTER nutritionally since it's
proteins & fats are animal-based... BUT it can take up to three months
for the ferret's system to adjust to tolerate the milk without diarrhea.
So, you WOULD NOT want to give an already sick ferret something that
would further disrupt the digestive tract.
 
So the bottom line is, Ensure won't kill them, but it's simply NOT the
best available choice for nutrition.
 
I always like to present alternatives when I disagree with something so
I'll add the following footnote:
 
My preference for critically ill ferrets is chicken baby food (usually
Gerber's Stage 2, but Heinz & Beechnut also make one that's just as good).
The baby food is more easily digestible than a soup made from kibble which
can be an important factor in illness affecting the digestive tract such
as ulcers or IBD or ECE.  For long term feeding (over 1 month), liquid or
tube dispensed vitamins (depending on the illness) can be added.
 
Sick ferrets will literally starve themselves to death JUST because their
stomach is upset and they'll fight tooth and toenail to prevent you from
getting food into them.  So with a sick ferret, every bite of food counts.
Every bite needs to have as much nutrition concentrated into it as is
possible.  One of the most common complications of "failure to thrive" is
starvation or near-starvation.
 
Debi Christy
Ferrets First Foster Home
 
Practical & easy training, care, & maintenance articles available at
http://www.geocities.com/ferretsfirst/
Recommended as a "Must See" web site by Ferrets Magazine!
[Posted in FML issue 3796]