I have a ferret named Bandit.

He is either 5.5 years old or 9.5 years old. He became part of our
family about 3.5 years ago and when we adopted him and his cage mate
they were both suppose to be 6+ years old. We're sure is cage mate was
6+ but he looked more like a young ferret, he was lightning fast, alert
and very active. He even grew longer after we had him home for a few
months leaving me to think he was an adolescent when we got him. We
asked our vet who said he wasn't 6+ more like 2. So if he was 2 he is
5.5 now if he was 6+ he is at least 9.5 now.

He has Insulinoma and is being treated with 0.5 mls of 1mg/1ml
prednisolone. He appears to have Adrenal disease thinning fur, tail
very thin and bald on the bottom, feet are also bald or near bald. The
rest of his body hair is thin. We gave him a desloring Implant about
6 months ago but so far his fur remains unchanged or even thinner.
For sometime now he has been underweight and we have been feeding him
pureed chicken (with Totally Ferret Complete care mixed in), twice a
day (with his prednisolone) and I have gone to 3 and sometimes 4 times
a day with his feeding. His normal weight is around 2 lbs 3 ounces but
he has gone down to 1 lbs 13 ounces. We found he tested positive for
Giardia so he and all the ferrets were treated with antibiotics (and
they will get treated again in 3 weeks, I forget the name of the
antibiotic it started with a P). His weight came up to almost 2 lbs 0
ounces and then back down to 1 lbs 14.5 ounces.

Since we are not 100% sure of his age can this weight loss be normal
for a 9 year old ferret? How about a 5.5 year old ferret

He is active, alert, curious, and does not appear to be having any
problems besides being skinny and having thin fur. His glucose was
75 the last time we checked when his weight was 1 lb 14 ounces.

Since the antibiotics he doesn't look as emaciated as he did before
but he is still thin and under 2 lbs. He received antibiotics for 5
days and its been just a few days since then.

I'm not sure if this weight is normal for him or if I need to give it
more time after the antibiotics to see if he puts on weight.

Any thoughts

Mike

[Posted in FML 7003]