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Post by luci on Jan 13, 2010 1:19:41 GMT -5
Liz (luvfuzzies20) from the ferret rescue called me yesterday to tell me that there was a little girl who needed a new home. Both parents are out of work and they have four children. They could no longer afford to care for her.
Her name (which will be changed) is Skittles. She's 11 months old and cinnamon (I think. I'm not good with the color classifications.)
Her backstory is that she's a Marshall purchased at Petco. She was purchased by a neighbor of this family. The neighbor had to rehome her as a condition of getting back together with her husband. This family took her in this past July.
I guess this family had had a ferret 10 years ago or so and they had rehomed it because the kids were small and they were afraid it would get injured by them.
Dave and I went over to their home this evening with Fierra to meet Skittles. Skittles was living in a big enough cage, but with cedar shavings. The smell and dust choked me when we got there. Also the woman told me that ferret food was too expensive, so she had been buying hamster/gerbil food. When I looked in the cage I was horrified to see millet and sunflower seeds in the dish. She also told me that her favorite treat is Banana Nut Cheerios.
Regardless of how Fierra and Skittles got along, Skittles was coming home with us. She is skinny. Her coat is brittle, short and lifeless. Amazingly she is running around exploring. I've been trying to get her to eat some chicken mush, but not having a lot of luck yet. I'll get some real nutrition into her if I have to stay up all night to do it.
She pooped a big one full of seeds, so luckily she doesn't have a blockage from that crazy diet. I'll be watching the poops like a hawk.
I didn't want to stress her out too much tonight, but I'm giving her an oatmeal bath tomorrow. The smell of the cedar is giving me a headache. We did have to clip her nails though. She couldn't walk properly and was getting caught on everything.
I'll post some pics later. Just wanted to let you guys in on what's going on.
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Post by weloveourweasels on Jan 13, 2010 1:26:57 GMT -5
Gerbil food with seeds poor girly thank you so much for rescuing her! Looking forward to pix even if she does look sad right now.
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Post by Heather on Jan 13, 2010 2:00:22 GMT -5
The poor wee thing . Thank goodness you've taken her in. Poor thing thinks she's a gerbil... Watch her closely (which I'm sure you will ) until she gets all that garbage out of her system. You have to wonder how she survived this long. Please keep us posted and pics would be great. I find that we often don't understand how badly our little ones look until we see photos of before and after. I know you will do a fantastic job by her . ciao
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Post by luci on Jan 13, 2010 2:52:40 GMT -5
A small success. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what would tempt this girl to eat. I was trying to think of sweet things to lace the meat with and decided to try some butternut squash purée. I mixed half squash and half pureed, cooked chicken and she ate about four fingerfuls. Hopefully the squash will push out any seeds left in her gut.
I know she's overexcited and needs some time to chill out so I think I'll leave her with some mush and see what happens. Right now she has found a place to sleep here in the office, but I'll have to cage her when we go to bed. I don't know if the office is completely Skittle-proofed yet and one of my cats is being hissy at her.
As skinny as she is she weighs as much as Fierra. Once I get some meat on her bones she's gonna be a brute!
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 13, 2010 10:17:40 GMT -5
I can't believe this little one survived long enough to come to you. Poor girl! Even cheap cat food would have been better than gerbil food! Thank you for taking her in.
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Post by luci on Jan 13, 2010 11:20:04 GMT -5
A quick photo from last night. I'll get some more in the natural light today.
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Post by Heather on Jan 13, 2010 14:34:38 GMT -5
That coat looks like the coat that some of my malnourished ferrets come in with. You may actually have a dark sable there once you get her on the raw food. She will probably have horribly loose poopies...her body has no idea on how to deal with the food (at least it will clean out all the seeds...I guess ) I had two little boys come in, they started eating raw right away. Their coats resembled this. They never looked back but the first couple of weeks were awful because of the horrible loose stools as their bodies learned how to work through actual protein. They were older than she was, about 5 yrs (they had been through 5 homes that the woman could actually name off) and they didn't even smell like ferrets. My guys would have nothing to do with them at the beginning. I have to admit, they made me gag, the stench on their coat was nothing like I'd smelled before. The lady said she'd just washed them and I believer her because you could smell the doggy shampoo. Their coats would just break in my hands and they were so thin that my son refused to handle them because he was afraid they'd break. I'm glad that you took her in. I will be interested in hearing about her progress. Good luck ciao
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Post by luci on Jan 13, 2010 14:55:27 GMT -5
You're right. She doesn't smell like a ferret at all. Just cedar (bath coming later this afternoon). As far as I've found she just had that one poop last night. She has peed a few times though, so that's good. I'm prepared for a messy transition. What do you think about continuing with the squash concoction? I hesitate to try anything new too quickly. I'm thrilled with what I've managed to get her to eat so far.
She breathes and sniffs so loud! Like a pug almost. Probably from the cedar I would guess. She wheezes.
She has a lovely attitude and more energy than she should. It's pretty amazing.
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Post by luci on Jan 13, 2010 15:25:06 GMT -5
I could just cry! I have both wood pellet litter boxes and newspaper boxes. She acted weird around the pellets but I figured she hadn't ever seen them before. I found her with one in her mouth like she was going to try and eat it. In her poop yesterday I saw what I thought looked like an alphalpha pellet or whatever is in those green rodent pellet foods.
She just ate a good amount of squash/chicken. Ate out of the bowl for the first time instead of off my fingers. She ate like she was starving, which she is.
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pika
Going Natural
Ferrets go Dook Dook Dook
Posts: 131
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Post by pika on Jan 13, 2010 15:39:44 GMT -5
Wow I'm sooo glad she went to you. I swear I hate it people get animals for THEIR ENJOYMENT ONLY. Yes having a pet is hugely rewarding but in the end you have to think what's right for the animal not what's "convenient" for you. It makes me so mad when I hear these stories. It's a miracle she's alive!
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Post by luci on Jan 13, 2010 15:59:47 GMT -5
In their defense, as ignorant as they were they thought they were doing a good thing. They took in this ferret that may have otherwise ended up at a kill shelter or even turned out into the woods. And they called a rescue instead of a worse option. I can forgive ignorance. That whole family really did care about her. They just didn't know.
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Post by luci on Jan 13, 2010 16:49:15 GMT -5
A couple of photos from today. A little quiet bonding time for her and I in the bathroom away from the other animals.
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pika
Going Natural
Ferrets go Dook Dook Dook
Posts: 131
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Post by pika on Jan 13, 2010 17:41:13 GMT -5
I know :/ It just makes me sad when I see such a beautiful baby! As much as they thought they were doing the right thing, they really should have done some reading before hand. With technology the way it is, plus all the books out there information is so much easier to get now a days. At least they cared though so that's good
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Post by luci on Jan 13, 2010 17:49:41 GMT -5
I know :/ It just makes me sad when I see such a beautiful baby! As much as they thought they were doing the right thing, they really should have done some reading before hand. With technology the way it is, plus all the books out there information is so much easier to get now a days. At least they cared though so that's good I agree. It was tough for me not to get angry when we were over there.
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Post by Heather on Jan 14, 2010 1:19:21 GMT -5
I'm in agreement not too many different foods at once. One this is going to be so hard on her digestive track and two this poor little girl has no idea what food is. You are going to have to watch her like a hawk. Take care of plastic bags, especially crinkle bags (like you get for the cats) and milk bags (the outside bag). They spray them with a protein component (it adds strength to the plastic) and any carnivore that is malnourished will eat them . Your little one is going to eat things that you've never dreamed that a ferret will eat. Until her body balances itself you're going to have a constant battle with her regarding the inedible things that she will try to eat (she's already been eating things and surviving what she shouldn't eat). I would keep either with the squash or the pumpkin, either will provide her body with the nutrients that have been lacking (I'm talking digestive bacteria, not the ferret itself) At the moment I would practice KISS and leave her on the present diet introducing new things in approx. a month. Oh, watch her she may have an upper respiratory infection caused by the cedar oils. Hopefully the damage won't be permanent. EO's that are in the cedar chips can cause permanent damage to organs but she's young and she wasn't there long. If she continues to snort and gag I would be tempted to have her checked out for respiratory issues. Curious...is she a marchals product? Boris my most recent rescue is a Marshals and he has a host of genetic issues and one of them is a damaged nasal passage and esophagus. He cannot breathe properly through his nose and if scruffed he cannot breathe at all. He's one that I expect will not live to be a ripe old age but he's a sweetie and he's at the moment reasonably healthy and very happy . Good luck ciao
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