Abu Losing weight

A couple weeks ago on a Friday we noticed Abu, our female ferret was losing some weight. Some weight is alot of weight for ferrets. Since they only weigh about 2 pds. She was lethargic, hard to wake up, and just not herself. I took her to the vet on Monday. We couldn't get into see our normal ferret vet. So we decided to go to the vet I took Big Red, our hen to. She is an exotic vet who normally see animals like ferrets, not chickens... :) She was so busy that day we had to wait forever because they were so busy they had just fit us in between some appointments. I took both the ferrets with me and Spanx was so hyper active he was walking all over Abu and she was already feeling icky. Well when we finally got into see her Abu decided to latch on to her hand before I could get out that she nips.. oops. But atleast she didn't bring blood. But the vet wasn't to happy about being nipped. But I was thinking in the back of my head... She is an exotic vet... shouldn't she know ferrets nip... :) . She talked to me about the symptoms and asked alot of questions and instead of treating her they way our normally vet treats them with 2 Antibiotics & carafate. She told me to switch her food back to Marshells from EVO and said because they might have Adrenal tumors it would be better to keep them on lower protein. And told me to give them Fish oil. Yuck.. right... Gave us some carafate tablets and told me to call if she continued to lose weight. She really took toime to decide how to treat her. She kept leaving the room and coming back to ask more questions. Then she would stand there and think and then leave again. I was so used to treating them with antibiotics when something like this happens I figured I would watch her closely for a couple days till our regular ferret vet could fit her in. But to my surprise after I switched the food, sprinkled it with the fish oil, and I didn't even give her the carafate she started doing better. Gaining weight, getting more energy, and just getting back to her normal self. She even stopped grinding her teeth and I haven't noticed her pulling at her mouth recently. She is also easier to wake up. So I would say awesome.

But it also made me notice that I have been giving them alot of antibiotics. I, myself will not take meds unless I absolutely have to. I don't mean just prescriptions like antibiotics & birth control. I mean like stuff clear down to over the counter sinus pills, aleve, & vitamins. And I hate giving stuff like wormers and vaccinations to the animals. But with the ferrets I thought that was the only thing I could do. And now I see how just a simple change and some extra fat that in the wild they would naturally get for themselves can totally change an ailment. I know fish oil is not vegan and I might even get some comments because of that. But when I took these animals in I took on the responsibility of doing everything I can to keep them safe, happy, and healthy. And who ever has animals should take on that responsibility or don't have them. Rescuing animals is awesome but only if you are going to care for them.

But I am glad she is doing better and I am now putting Fish oil in my list of good ferret "foods". Because it really helped!