Pam VanOverloop and Karen Trask wrote about something called "ferret wasting
disease".
 
This past spring Moby, who is a whale of a ferret (sorry), exhibited these
wasting symptoms.  They went far beyond the usual spring weight-loss norms.
He dropped from his normal 4 pounds down to approximately the same weight as
our little girl, Mugsy, who weighed about 1.5 lb at the time, due to her
spring weight loss.
 
Moby's was about 1 year old at the time, and the weight loss happened very
suddenly.  It was difficult to tell the difference in his activity level,
because he had always slept more than the other 3.  There did seem to be a
slight weakness in his hindquarters.  When I finally realized that this was
an extreme situation, I whomped up my own version of duck soup, consisting
of: Sustecal, Pedialyte, chicken baby food, banana baby food, and LOTS of
Ferretone.  I don't measure the stuff, I just use whole bottles and cans,
with the exception of the Pedialyte, which I used maybe 25% of the bottl and
Ferretone (I probably used about an ounce)--ok, I'm wasteful--because you
can only keep the stuff refrigerated for 48 hours and then discard.  I began
pumping about 8 ml of this goop down his gullet about 3 times a day, and he
began to show progress within a few days.
 
He went in for his annual check-up and shots yesterday (Saturday) and sure
enough, he weighs a little over 4 pounds again.  The vet gave him a clean
bill of health, while remarking upon his fat little belly, and his obvious
love of eating.  He's back to being our 2nd biggest boy again.  The biggest
(and by far meanest), Dole, who is 11 months old now, weighs almost 5 lb.
and in keeping with his normal contankerous personality, didn't lose an
ounce for spring, and in fact decided to sport a lovely new fluffy winter
coat for spring.
 
Maybe Moby had a very light case of this illness, I don't know.  I only know
that I'm glad that he responded so well to the forced feedings, and that he
seems to be happy and healthy now.
 
Diane
Mugsy - "Grandma, why did you make Moby fat again?  He nearly smothers me
in the hammock!"
Tuggle - "Hey, why was I left out of the post?  You know that I'm the
charmer"
Moby - "I think that I'll eat all the food left in the cat's dish--I hate
to see it go to waste."
Dole - "Chomp, fight, destroy, torture, lay waste -- whaddya mean, I'm not
nice?"
Callie (cat) - "I'll thank you to keep your *#%& cold ferret noses out of
my behind!"
[Posted in FML issue 2030]