OK hairball alert.  Winter is coming and so are winter coats for our little
fuzzies along with my heart failure.  My babies are ill.  I can't find a
brush for Belle and Tigger to pick up excess hair.  I have tried a soft
brush, the glove brush the only thing that works is brushing them to loosen
the hair and rolling and rubbing them across my cloths to get the hair off.
I will have no hair on the brush but a ton on my cloths.  Whatever works
but my babies have hairballs in their tummies.  I started giving them
Laxatone (a hair ball remover) well 5 days later Tigger is acting like he
has to get sick but never throws-up.  He hasn't ate or drank much for 3
days.  Tigger just looks up at me when he goes to his food and water bowl
and acts like he is going to get sick.  I just cry and try to hand feed
him.  Last night (day 2 of vet medicine) in his stool was a cocoon shaped
hair ball.  Thank god.  This morning (day 3 of vet medicine) I put some
Ferretone in him food and he ate a little.  He still looked up at me and
acted like he was going to get sick but he ate something.
 
Last night (day 2 of vet medicine) Belle started acting like she has to get
sick and she stopped eating.  Belle is different, she has liver problems so
I am extra protective of her.  I called my vet yesterday about Tigger not
eating and she will be calling today.
 
They both went to the vet on Tuesday.  She gave them both an antibiotic and
something for Tigger's nausea.  The morning after their first dose Belle
was more playful then she has been in a year.  They have not attacked my
feet for that long.  It was great to see them overly active again.  Its
been 3 days now since I have been giving them medicine.  After their active
morning they stopped doing everything, very little food and water for Belle
and I finally got Belle's weight to 1 7/8 lb.  She had been 1 lb forever.
But we got a new puppy and we feed him Percise Puppy dry mixed with a 1/2
can of Percise Puppy Growth.  Belle tour into it.  The vet told me to let
her eat whatever she was willing to eat.  For about 5 months the only thing
she would eat was Bandit treats and moist beef and cheese dog food.  She
has been steeling the Percise puppy growth food for 7 months as well as
eating her Marshall ferret food and has doubled her weight.  I was so
relieved.  But now she is hacking like she has to get sick and now she
won't eat.  She can't afford to loose any weight, she is a 2 year old dark
sable, and Tigger is a 1 year old light sable, 3 lb.  I think he was closer
to 4 lb before the hairball.
 
How long will this last?  Today I am going to try to find a recipe for Duck
Soup, if not try to hand feed them something, first their Marshall ferret
food, then Percise puppy food, then treats, help what else can I try.  I am
going to try to get more water in them with a syringe.  I am trying not to
panic but they are my babies.  I don't have any children and I treat them
like babies and they are sick and I feel helpless.  I have never had a
hairball problem before.  I am blaming myself, I should have given them
more baths and tried every brush on the market.
 
- Can I give them a bath even though they don't feel good?
- What brush will work?
- Should I continue to give them Laxatone with their other medicine to
  help pass the hairballs?
- How many hairballs can I expect to see?
- Will they need surgery if all the hairballs don't pass?
- How worried should I be because I am worried about blockage,
  dehydration, and starvation?
 
Tigger: "We didn't have to get our yearly shots because we are sick"
Belle:  "Thank goodness because I don't feel good"
Tigger: "Yea, me too"
Kylo (Shar-pei/dog): "Mommy where is Tigger, I want to play"
 
Trudi, thank you for letting me know what a hairball looks like.  I don't
know that I would have found it otherwise.
 
Puppy pads reply: I use puppy training pads.  I don't cut them though.  I
put the pad under their litter box in the corner, it extends a good foot
from the litter box.  If they miss the litter box it goes on the puppy pad
and not on the floor, this makes clean up easy for me.
 
Sand Boxes reply: I read somewhere a long time ago in a ferret book that it
was not suggested to use sand for ferrets to dig in.  The sand is so small
that they can inhale it and cause lung problems.  I have read on the FML
that experienced ferret owners use this, I trust them and just want to see
what the best thing to use is.  I'm afraid that they will inhale the sand,
chock on rice, and of bugs and fleas in dirt.  What about shredded paper?
What is the safest because I don't want to deprive them of their favorite
thing.
 
Flames reply: Please don't be afraid of posting.  I find that people are
always in a different place then you, with different experiences.  If
someone flames you it may be because of where they are in life and it may
spark an upsetting personal experience that they had in the past.  We are
not perfect and every post helps someone.  I would have never given a
thought to furballs and Laxatone if I didn't read about the giant furball
found while a ferret was being operated on for something else.  Now I have
(I think) caught it early enough so that surgery will not be necessary.
Think of it this way, for every flame you may get you may have helped 10
other people.
 
Anna, Belle & Tigger
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[Posted in FML issue 2470]