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Post by Lynxie on Dec 8, 2010 22:52:40 GMT -5
So I've found myself in the possession of two more ferrets (gotta love that ferret math). Both are males, one an albino (Lestat), and one a dark eyed white (Louie).
Lestat has been diagnose with borderline insulinoma, and is on daily prednisolone. Both of them are kibble fed. I'm not at all worried about switching Louie over, but I'm worried about Lestat, because I've never dealt with an insulinomic ferret before.
What do I need to know about switching him? Is it true that it's nigh impossible to completely switch insulinomic ferrets?
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Post by Heather on Dec 8, 2010 23:47:59 GMT -5
The only thing you have to be careful of is that he always has food when you're switching. I switched my little Calypso, the raw meats kept her basically stable without the use of pred until this summer. She's still only on raw but I now feed her by hand 3x a day to make sure she indeed does eat (the drop in blood sugar makes them nauseous, they won't eat....vicious cycle) I feed her just before she has her pred (on the pred every 12 hrs) plus one other feeding. She's doing very well. I just upped feeding her to 3x a day when she had an episode the other day where she became spacey, drooling and probably came very close to crashing. I know that this disease is progressive and there may be a point when I have to feed her kibbles too, but for now she's only getting raw. I had a student a year or so ago who's both fuzzies were insulinomic. These were late stages and even though she was never able to truly wean them off kibbles, her vet was amazed at the quality of life that they had. She directly attributed it to the improved diet. So your little one will indeed benefit. Take your time. It's a bit more labour intensive but your little boy will probably do well even if he can never give up the kibble entirely. Good luck ciao
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Post by mustelidmusk on Dec 8, 2010 23:48:01 GMT -5
I've helped switch a handful of them - mostly outside this forum. It can be done, but I recommend a completely different approach than starting with soup. Instead, I switch the ferret to freeze-dried raw first. Then I move to fresh raw. The freeze-dried raw is then available at ALL times.
If you cannot afford the freeze-dried raw, you may want to provide a high percentage of the wysong epigen kibble (with perhps a bit of high protein/low carb regular kibble at all times and feed a high-fat raw meal twice a day.
-jennifer
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Post by Lynxie on Dec 9, 2010 0:15:15 GMT -5
I'll have to look into wysong. I've looked for it around here in the pet stores, and have never seen it. Would just a high quality (high protein, no grain, etc) cat food be alright in lieu? Like perhaps Wellness CORE or something like that?
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Post by mustelidmusk on Dec 9, 2010 1:53:05 GMT -5
Wellness Core is one of the better foods. Grain-free is just that - it has no grain. But no grain dies not mean no carbs. The grain is replaced by oher carb sources (potatoes, tapioca, etc.)
There is only one carb-frree kibble that' the wysong epigen. the epigen is too low in fats for ferrets, but if you feed some raw diet with extra animal fat, you can use the epigen. Your ferret will need more animal fat than that provided in the epigen.
-jennifer
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Post by Lynxie on Dec 9, 2010 8:36:33 GMT -5
Alright. I'll have to look into Wysong and see how expensive it is.
As of right now they are both doing pretty well. They'll eat the kibble/meat mush I give them fairly readily, if only from a spoon. I left a bit of kibble out last night for lestat in case he got hungry, but he spent most of the night sprawled out next to me asleep. =3
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 9, 2010 17:13:50 GMT -5
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