Hi, Mike,

Glad to hear Sprout is eating some on his own. Yes, ECE is hard on
older ferrets but it sounds like you're on the way to getting him
healthy.

If you can get him to eat a reasonable quantity on his own without
force feeding that is always best. I fully agree with the moderator
comments you received inline with your post. If you must force feed do
make certain your vet shows you the right way to do it. If your ferret
aspirates the food (goes down the wrong pipe) you could end up with
more and serious problems.

While there's nothing wrong with chicken baby food I wanted to
recommend Bob Church's Chicken Gravy. It is nutritionally complete for
ferrets and most of the little monsters seem to think it's a wonderful
treat. It also puts weight back on recovering ferrets very quickly. I
use Pam Sessoms' pressure cooker method for making it. See:
http://www.trifl.org/pressuregravy.shtm
That way it doesn't take long to make and doesn't make a big mess.
There is also background information at:
http://www.trifl.org/gravy.shtml

The vets we've used both here in North Carolina and when I was up in
Wisconsin are big believers in Bob's Gravy. The vet we now use actually
keeps a stock of it on hand for use in their practice. It may well be
worth the extra effort if Sprout will willingly take it and even if
not.

Good luck to you and to Sprout.

All the best,
Caity and the terrific trio (Chin Soon, Ella and Zephyr)

[Posted in FML 6631]