What to Feed an Ailing Ferret

A few days ago little Finnegan - not sure why I call him that - he is 3 pounds of ferret goodness - was feeling a bit under the weather.  I think he had what the vet and the pet insurance company would call a "dietary indescretion" and ferrets are notorious for these.

He was feeling quite cruddy which resulted in some icky outputs - won't get more graphic than that - but you can figure out what that entails.  When such icky outputs occur there are 2 things you need to think about with your sick fuzzbutt.

1.  You want to make sure your little guy or girl is hydrated.  Ferrets are so little its easy for them to get outta whack.  Luckily for me, Finn loves to drink the water machine water out of my cup.  When I realized he was feeling bad I filled up a cup with sixteen ounces of water and only let him drink from that cup.  This was a great way to track his consumption and he was good about drinking every time I offered.  Had he not been drinking - a vet appointment would have been scheduled very shortly thereafter to get him some subcutaneous fluids.

2.  Food intake.  Ferrets have such a fast metabolism that if they go for long periods of time without eating they produce a sort of mucousy output (sorry - sort of graphic).  Their metabolism keeps on going even when there is nothing in there.  While Finn was drinking quite well - he was not at all interested in food.

There are lots of things out there - canned ferret food, a mixture called Duck Soup that you can make for your ailing ferret, etc.  I haven't had much luck with those in the past so I went with my old stand by... My ferrets eat a combo of high quality cat and dog food - mostly catfood.  I also keep on hand the ferret food that Maddie, Finn, Violet and Theo all ate at the pet store when they were babies.  I equate this to something similar to human comfort food.  When they are not feeling well I make up a small batch of the following - low sodium chicken broth warmed in the microwave, a bit of cat food, a few pieces of dog food and their old baby food.  I let this sit for a couple of minutes til the food gets squishy.  I stir it up and offer it to the ailing critter.  Sometimes it takes some coaxing but pretty soon they give in and start eating.  I have had quite good luck with this.  Sometimes I add a half a package of feline probotics to the mix which seems to help quiet their upset system.

I fed Finn every three hours from about 9 am to about midnight when I thought he was doing better and had more normal outputs.  He seems to be just fine now - which is why it makes me think the ate something he shouldn't have.  I think he is doing just great and seems quite happy and healthy.