Honey and Ferrets

Little Finn was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday.  Not sure if he ate something he should not have or if he had a little hair ball or what but he was hacking.  He was even trying to heave up whatever was in there.  I decided to give him a tiny bit of honey.  Giving honey to your ferrets can be dangerous so you have to be really careful.  There are two uses that I am aware of - treating low blood sugar for ferrets with insulinoma and using it for allergies or hacking.  Its easy for ferrets to contact insulinoma (diabetes) so you have to really be careful of the amount of sugar they get.

Honey has properties that are much like Benedryl - is a natural antihistamine.  It opens up airways and seems to really clear up stuff stuck in their throats.  Before I did the honey treatment I did sweep his mouth with my fingers to make sure there was nothing there.  He didn't care so much for that.  Once I got him to lick up the honey he ran around like a little freak.  He had a couple more little hacks left in him and then it was all over.  I kept an eye on him over the course of the night - checked his outputs for anything funky.  Nothing to report.  He is eating and drinking and playing and seems 100% today.  Whew!