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Furbies1 Wrote:Have come across some other useful food supplements since putting up my earlier posts on the FAQ area these may also be useful to anyone struggling to feed sick ferrets.

http://www.royalcanin.co.uk/vet/clinical...pport.aspx can be used in place of Chicken Complan, is something that vets may have in. One of my friends has used it for very malnourished ferrets, including one with a heart condition - they seem to like it as it is or mixed in duck soup.

Rose at Mercia has had success recently with two elderly ferrets that came in very undernourished and with bad stomachs, she managed to turn them round with 2 hrly feed of 5 mls Hills Feline AD and 5 mls of water. Took lot of perseverance (rubbing food round ferrets gums can get them to accept new food apparently) but eventually both accepted and started to like the mix. Hills you can get from most vets - as far as I know it has to be the Feline AD that you use.

Furbies1 Wrote: How are you getting on with the syringe feeding?

If you havent done this before then the following may help (its the same way you would syringe meds to a sick ferret, just use a bigger syringe - we use a 20-30ml syringe for force feeding)

First, load the syringe and pick a place where you can sit comfortably and access the syringe. Next, get the ferret and hold the ferret firmly by the scruff on the back of their neck (if its their first time syringe feeding sometimes you have to resort to scruffing, as they get used to it this becomes unneccessary) - always easier if there are two of you. It might be helpful to wrap the ferret in a towel if they are particularly squirmy (or if it is a rather nasty medication). Place the tip of the syringe in the back corner of the ferret's mouth and squirt the liquid onto their tongue toward the FRONT of their mouth and wait for them to swallow. This is very important. If you squirt the liquid into the back of the mouth, you can cause the ferret to aspirate the liquid (inhale it into their lungs) and cause serious problems.

We use a ducksoup mix with complan or convalesence powder added in with ours, served warm rather than cold. What tends to happen is that after the first couple of feeds the ferret relaxes and seems to look forward to the content of the syringe and instead of forcing the liquid via the side of the mouth will lap from the end of the syringe while you gently support the ferret. Dont make it too thick/gloopy to start off with as that can make it hard work for them - a liquid soup consistency is what you are after. Using a syringe is useful with a poorly ferret who is eating nothing else as you can see clearly how much food/fluid mix has gone down, which isnt so easy to judge from a bowl. Also we found they seem to glug it down more readily from the syringe.

If your ferret is not eating at all on his own, you must do this every 4 hours or so. Less often if your ferret is eating smaller meals in between.

After a couple of feeds it tends to get easier.

Even once its eating and drinking own its own its useful giving some of the mix in addition to the kibble etc just to help speed up the weight gain as they certainly do lose weight fast when they are not well.

Anyway hope all goes well for you.

If you want to try the Royal Canine Support Powder try getting it from these guys, good prices and really good service http://www.vetuk.co.uk/royal-canin-veter...hets-p-254