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Food and Health Questions

HoodedHoy Aug 25, 2009 11:46 AM

Hi all,
I have a male albino ferret who is about five years old that I adopted almost two years ago. Recently he has been losing weight, I know part of this has been loss of muscle mass because for a while I was working two jobs every day of the week and he was not getting any exercise.
When I first noticed the weight decrease was effecting the bulk on his back and ribs and not just his legs I began transitioning him to a higher quality food.
He is currently eating totally ferret venison and turkey formula mixed with natural balance duck and pea cat food, I have also been adding wysong freeze dried food to this blend for a higher fat and protein content. I have not seen much improvement in his body tone after a month on this regime. I'm worried about trying to get him to exercise too much when he has no body fat so he is still not terribly active.
I'm in the middle of moving at the moment but once I am settled and my finances have recovered he's going to the vet, I just wanted to know if anyone has any tips for aiding weight gain or ideas of comment ailments to ask my vet about.
Thanks in advance.
Jess

Replies (2)

PHJoker Aug 27, 2009 10:11 PM

I would get him to the vet for a full work up - adrenal problems are very common in ferrets and can cause a variety of symptoms, weight loss included.
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PHJoker
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HoodedHoy Sep 04, 2009 07:50 PM

Thanks, I'm going to do just that once I'm finished moving and my finances recover from that a bit. For the moment at least he seems to have gained a bit of weight over the past week so I'm a bit more hopeful. Won't know for sure until I can bring him in for a check up though. Crossing my fingers that it's something minor...

Cheers,
Jessie

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