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Post by Heather on Sept 21, 2009 0:20:28 GMT -5
That's great that Gadget is finally off meds. I'm sorry that his lungs have been scarred by the infection. Did they ever decide exactly what this has been? Tassy may have a touch of IBD or something like that. My Ghenghis seems to have 1 maybe 2 of those really ugly poopies and are more liquid than solid...really grosse and foul smelling, usually in the afternoon. The rest of the time, they're fine, so I 've just been leaving it (they get squash or some sort of veggie in their food and this seems to help). It's not good that Tassy has decided not to eat his meals on his own after eating them for so long Have you tried other meats at all, even mixing small amounts with their existing fav chicken? Do they loose their appetite with the primary onset of adrenal? I've got two with adrenal now, Mad Max who is 9 or 10 and Pooka who is 8 or 9...obviously neither is going to visit the vet for surgery. At the moment other than a coat that is a little sparse, they're showing no signs of slowing down and their appetites are still good. Neither is being aggressive, both have been probably a good year into it, so other than melatonin we're opting to do nothing at the moment. Now that Gadget is feeling better, are you up to working at getting them to try some different meats and maybe working at seeing why Tassy is not into his dinner anymore?? That concerns me. I've got a little girl that's being like that....she does eat a bit on her own but she would rather just sleep She's 11 yrs old, she may just be tired The kitty knew who to follow home I'm glad that it had a happy ending. Keep in touch and let me know what's going on with your little ones. ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on Sept 21, 2009 12:10:03 GMT -5
I'm more concern about Tassy not eating his dinner. They still have EVO kibbles in the cage for during the day when we're at work. We'd tried leaving meat out for them but it's always been untouched. I'm pretty sure that Gadget doesn't eat kibbles, but I'd seen Tassy at the bowl a few times. I just started thinking that he might be spoiling his appetite on EVO when we're not home. Maybe we should stop keeping kibbles in the cage? I think they're healthy enough to go without contingency food during the day. But on the other hand, Tassy finishes his meals all the time, even we need to spoon feed him. So it's not like he's not hungry and we're force feeding him.... what to do what to do... We're putting extra pumpkin in their chicken and Tassy's poopies got better for a while. I remember you suggested slippery elm when Poley was having belly problems. Do you think we should try some on Tassy? I'm sorry to hear that Mad Max and Pooka are showing signs of adrenal. Hopefully the melatonin will help with the symptoms. If you're considering deslorelin, there are 3 implants sitting at our vet's office if your vet can't get it in from Australia. I'm sick at home today, so maybe it's a good day to test my theory and take away the kibbles in the cage and see if Tassy does better at supper time. Will let you know how it goes. Take care!
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Post by Heather on Sept 22, 2009 1:40:26 GMT -5
I'm sorry to hear that you're not feeling well. You could try the slippery elm and see if it helps. I know that it's suggested that you only use it for 2 weeks and then take a respite for a couple of weeks before returning to it again. Maybe, you could try the pumpkin for 2 weeks and then the slippery elm. It's worth a try. As you're at home it might be a good idea to see just what is going on as far as the kibbles while you're away. I know that my guys, sleep, when confined to their cages...rarely eating until they're back out again. Let me know how it goes. Thank you for the offer of deslorin, I will let you know if I cannot get any, or if I choose to go in that direction. I understand that it's getting harder and harder to get and they've found that for some reason European ferrets seem to react to it better (get better results) than our ferrets over here. There's a wonder if the adrenal problems that we have over here, is actually different in some aspect than the adrenal that they've been treating in Europe??!! Genetic vs medical (early spay and neuter), there is also theorized that it will not treat malignancies, only benign tumours?? Just some thoughts on that one Let me know how your guys do with you being home ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on Sept 22, 2009 20:21:44 GMT -5
Well, I took the kibbles out of the cage yesterday. Like your guys, Tassy and Gadget slept most of the day and didn't really make a fuss about not having food handy. Came dinner time, they should be hungry but nope, no go. Tassy was still being fussy. Spoon feeding all the way. And then it suddenly dawned on me: Tassy always lick the rim of the bowl and then he runs away. Maybe the bowl tastes funny?? I gave the bowl an extra wash before I made his dinner tonight... and what do you know? He cleared his bowl all by himself! I feel really terrible. I didn't realize there's so much soap residue left on the dishes after they'd gone through the dishwasher and it's must taste awful to Tassy. I'm throwing this stuff and going back to the organic stuff we had before. I'm going to make sure I rinse out the kids' bowls before each meal. Let's see if that's the trick to get Tassy back on track. I wonder if that's what upsetting Tassy's belly too.... now I feel really really terrible. Yeah I read about the theory that deslorelin only works on hyperplasia but not carcinomas. I didn't realize there's a smaller success rate with North American ferrets. I wonder if that's a statistical aberration, you know? The sample size is too small in North America coz the implant is not as widely available. If it doesn't work on 10 European ferrets out of the 1000 that had got the implant, it's a 1% failure rate. If it works on 1 out of 2 lucky NA ferret who can get their paws on an implant, that's a 50% failure rate.... I don't know if that's a fair comparison. Take care! Talk to you soon!
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Post by Heather on Sept 22, 2009 23:08:28 GMT -5
Oh wow, do I feel like a dummy. I never even thought about the dishwasher detergent residue. That would indeed make for upset tummies, if the residue is that bad. No wonder he wanted to be hand fed. My guys food bowls never go through the dishwasher, I hand wash them (just because they get really gross as I have a couple who insist on stashing the whole bowl. It's a good point about the statistical numbers....the smaller population that is using the deslorin implants would indeed present false or skewed readings. Another thing that is probably presenting a problem regarding the actual data is that over here, we normally wait until the lupron isn't working any more. By this time we may indeed be dealing with a carcinomas but it may be totally unrelated to the original adrenal problem. The deslorin will not work and therefore we're seeing no results and deem this a failure. I've seen too many failures of treating one disease only to find that there was something else lurking that wasn't being properly read by the diagnostics. Little Zena, being treated for insulinomas but actually had a brain tumour. My little Pandora being treated for adrenal, but it was actually insulinomas. Ferrets are such a difficult patient. I will be interested to see if your guys suddenly develop an interest in their food again and if this cures their loose poopies. I'm glad that you found this, it could only have been found on a fluke. You could have continued to pay expensive tests but continued to get inconclusive results. ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on Sept 27, 2009 21:30:37 GMT -5
This cold had knocked me off my feet for a good couple days. Poor kids are not getting much play time with Mommy Well, I guess there's more that soap residues that Tassy doesn't like about his dinner. We'd been hand washing everyone's bowls since then but Tassy is still very much touch and go with spoon feeding. He doesn't get kibbles in the cage anymore so he's gotta be hungry The poopies situation are getting a little better. There seems to be less mucous-y stinky poops in the last few days, but we're still getting bird-seedy poops and dark greenish poops so somebody is still not digesting his food as good as he should be. Wish I could catch them in the act and know who's producing what but most times we can only observe what's in the cage <sigh> I'd been putting extra pumpkin into their food. How much is too much? I mean, can you over do the pumpkin? Their poops are alternating between bring orange and greenies... am I making things worse? Take care! Talk to you soon!
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Post by Alliemegan on Sept 28, 2009 22:41:14 GMT -5
We'd taken away the kibbles in their cage for about 5 days now but Mr. Tassy still doesn't seem to be taken more to his raw diet. He's been eating on his own on and off, I'd say we spoon feed him every other meal. He eats better when we make his dinner extra soupy. But for the same amount of meat, we have to put in a lot of broth to make it nice and loose, which adds up to a huge volume. And I guess his tummy just can't hold that much food!
Maybe I'll have to feed him 5 times a day....
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Post by Heather on Sept 29, 2009 0:39:48 GMT -5
What would happen if you left him his soupy or does he just leave it? It may take him a couple of weeks to figure out that his kibbles just aren't coming back. It's almost like he's gone back a step Work with him, allow him his privilege of backtacking but start to thicken the soupy up again if he will start eating it. I will double check the dosage for the pumpkin, I know that a certain amount is used for settling the tummy and a certain amount is used to loosen things up. None of it is harmful but I will see if I can find out the actual dosage for you. I know that Loki stopped eating a couple of weeks ago. There is absolutely no reason that I can put my fingers on. If he's fed, he eats more than enough. His poopies are fine, he's peeing fine....his activity level is down but not by any huge factor considering he's around 8 or 9 yrs old. Yesterday, he started eating on his own. I'm still feeding, topping him up but I'm trying to make him do this on his own....I've honestly no idea as to why? or a solution to this. If it keeps up I'm going to take him into the vets....he may have a heart problem as he is putting on a lot of belly weight, and his shape reminds me a lot of Mayhem (cardio maleopathy). He's a path valley and heart problems seem to go hand in hand with them. Adrenal seems to be more a marshals problem I really wish that these farm ferret breeders would look at their breeding programs....but then if the little ones lived too long people wouldn't keep buying new ones Keep me posted ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on Oct 3, 2009 21:27:45 GMT -5
My in-laws are in town and Tassy has been too busy checking out the new guests in the house to remember his dinner. Not even spoon feeding works in the last couple of days. I'm thinking about putting the kibbles back for snacks just for the duration when our folks are here. It's also a bit of a test: poopies had been better since we took away the kibbles. I wonder they're going to get stinky again when they go back to kibbles...
Tonight not even Gadget finished his dinner. The commotions are just too much of a distraction. I'm going to put the leftovers in the cage with them and see if anyone touch it by morning.
It's Run for the Cure in Toronto tomorrow morning and I'm going to do my very first 5K run! Wish me luck! I'll let you know if I run, walk or crawl to the finish line!
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Post by Heather on Oct 3, 2009 22:06:55 GMT -5
Distractions do mess up a feeding schedule....think little children That's what they are, just little furkids Because of the health issues that your guys have you may want to add some kibbles if they don't eat their foods tonight...just to keep them topped up. You're an active soul Good luck with your run tomorrow, I will be thinking of you. The weather is supposed to be fairly reasonable I think so you should be comfortable (other than maybe sore feet ) Let me know how it goes ciao
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