>Hi, April!  It was from Dr. Bruce Williams that I learned that the risk
>of aspiration pneumonia is not at all negledgable in ferrets.  Of
>course, in your case yo uare trained and you are doing it only short
>term for very sick animals for whom there is no other choice.  The
>poster was talking about anyone doing it, and was talking about forcing
>a daily supplement that way.
 
Hello, too! :)  I just wanted to say that I do know that it's a risk, but
I think that if folks are properly trained (we don't send our clients
home to syringe feed without showing them how and discussing the risks
and giving them instruction and suggestions for how to do it safely, and
we like to demonstrate), the risks are not as great in a ferret as in,
say, a bird.  If we can teach our clients how to syringe feed their sick
ferrets, the ferrets often recover faster and better at home-ferrets seem
to get less depressed and recover FASTER whenever they can be treated at
home.
 
An example would be my Shannon, who spent a week at another animal
hospital last year b/c of an emergency ultrasound requirement, and during
her time there, she became extremely despressed, despite my daily visits.
It slowed her recovery (she was still requiring an IV catheter for fluids
after 5 days, which was unexpected, given her condition upon admission),
and once they were able to stabilize her enough so she could come home,
her recovery improved considerably.  I have seen this in numerous ferret
patients.
 
I guess my point was just that ferret owners shouldn't be terrified to
learn the skill-unfortunately, it's probably going to be a necessary one
for most ferret owners in the course of their ferrets' lives-and I just
didn't want people unfamiliar with it to balk too much if it's ever
suggested to them.  DEFINITELY learn how to do it PROPERLY to minimize
your risks, but also don't think of it as being too scary.
 
I don't think I'm saying this well, but I'm just trying to get across
that it's not the riskiest thing you'll ever do for your ferret if
you take the time to learn how to do it.  As far as forcing a regular
supplement goes, part of the idea of force-feeding a supplementary diet
is that eventually, once they've been "forced" to try it, your ferret
may decide it's not so bad and start eating on its own; however, without
those initial syringe feedimgs, you may never get to that point.  My
insulinomic Marley WOULD NOT eat turkey or chicken baby food when I first
started supplementing his food, and I had to syringe feed it to get him
to try it.  After a few weeks, though, he decided it wasn't so bad and
would eat it from a plate if I held him.  Then he decided he didn't need
me to hold him, and I could just put the plate down on the floor for him.
This made the transition to Bob Church's Chicken Gravy (modified for his
insulinoma) a cakewalk-he just started eating that on his own right away.
Incidentally, I have to force his prednisone medication into him twice a
day, every day, for life, and you could theoretically cause aspiration
pneumonia by giving meds this way, too, but it is necessary (though not
as likely as with a larger syringe of food).
 
I wanted my other ferrets to start having Bob's Gravy a few times a week
to supplement their diets more naturally, and I had to syringe it to a
few of them, too, before they'd try it.  Just trying to alleviate some
fears...
 
Hope that clarifies!
 
Cheers,
April
[Posted in FML issue 4247]