Post by trip59 on Feb 20, 2009 0:27:58 GMT -5
Ok, not sure if this goes here or in the breeder forum above, kinda straddles both and I'm new so I can get away with it, right
I want to include some mice in my kids diets, looking for live to also give the enrichment factor.
The local mouse supplies seem to have pinworms. I found this while doing fecal floats on my rats and herps (herps can't get mouse pinworms, but they pass through the tract). Now, my pet rats are doing ivermectin and two of three are now clear, however, I'm not so inclined to play around with de-pinworming food every week.
While the herps can't get them, mammals can, and I'm assuming that means ferrets too. My ferret's floats were clear last night, and I'd like to keep them that way. Freezing doesn't kill all pinworm eggs, not even a 90 day freeze, but it certainly kills the host, thereby eliminating half my reason for feeding them.
I'm not thrilled about paying $45 for a visit, plus cost of testing and meds for a mouse, but I'd be willing to pay that to get a colony started.
What I'm wondering is, do I see if the vet (sharp guy, into exotics, wrote a pretty great ferret medical book too) can just get me meds and instructions for a group of mice and just quarantine/treat/then feed, or would it be that much better to get a colony start, treat and clean, then breed my own so there's no meds getting passed to the ferrets?
OR
Are ferrets designed to not have to worry about pinworms? Longshot I know, but with all the stuff about how tough their digestion is and how short and all that...figured I'd ask.
Do any of you check mouse feces (you should have heard the conversation at the store tonight when I got some to test...) or do you have floats done on your ferrets, or do you even worry about it?
Sorry for the novella, I tend to have a penchant for excessive verbosity at times.
Trip
I want to include some mice in my kids diets, looking for live to also give the enrichment factor.
The local mouse supplies seem to have pinworms. I found this while doing fecal floats on my rats and herps (herps can't get mouse pinworms, but they pass through the tract). Now, my pet rats are doing ivermectin and two of three are now clear, however, I'm not so inclined to play around with de-pinworming food every week.
While the herps can't get them, mammals can, and I'm assuming that means ferrets too. My ferret's floats were clear last night, and I'd like to keep them that way. Freezing doesn't kill all pinworm eggs, not even a 90 day freeze, but it certainly kills the host, thereby eliminating half my reason for feeding them.
I'm not thrilled about paying $45 for a visit, plus cost of testing and meds for a mouse, but I'd be willing to pay that to get a colony started.
What I'm wondering is, do I see if the vet (sharp guy, into exotics, wrote a pretty great ferret medical book too) can just get me meds and instructions for a group of mice and just quarantine/treat/then feed, or would it be that much better to get a colony start, treat and clean, then breed my own so there's no meds getting passed to the ferrets?
OR
Are ferrets designed to not have to worry about pinworms? Longshot I know, but with all the stuff about how tough their digestion is and how short and all that...figured I'd ask.
Do any of you check mouse feces (you should have heard the conversation at the store tonight when I got some to test...) or do you have floats done on your ferrets, or do you even worry about it?
Sorry for the novella, I tend to have a penchant for excessive verbosity at times.
Trip