Low In The Weasel

Tonight is a perfect night for watching the Olympics with the ferrets. Ice dancing is on now and Zephyr was just war dancing. Tonight's men's Super G skiing coverage includes a part of the course called "the weasel". I constantly heard commentary like "he's a bit low in the weasel". Ferrets, of course, are a member of the weasel family. You can't get more of a ferret tie in to the Olympics than that.

There have been lots of crashes and falls on the ski course. In the race for the gravy Chin Soon and Ella had a big crash and the oldest ferret, Ella, just couldn't recover as quickly as Chin Soon. Chin Soon took the gold, Ella settled for the silver, and Zephyr the bronze. Skier Bode Miller also had to settle for a silver for Team USA but it was his second in as many events. Another American skier, Andrew Weibrecht, took the bronze. Certainly not a bad day for Team USA, which now has won 20 medals.

I was still a bit under the weather last night and wanted to be up to go to work today so I missed the end of the men's figure skating. I missed Evan Lysacek's gold medal performance for Team USA. I won't miss any more figure skating if at all possible.

In other ferret news Ella finished her course of medication for her eye, which seems to be back to normal. So far this has been her most active night in quite a while.

Chin Soon's Delayed Reaction To Her Distemper Vaccination

Last Tuesday it seemed that Chin Soon's reaction to her distemper vaccination was the least severe of the three. By last night Ella and Zephyr were completely back to normal and were especially playful. They were the proverbial energizer weasels: they kept going and going. Chin Soon continued to look and feel out of sorts while the others recovered and by last night it looked like she was in serious trouble. She had no energy at all and still seemed off balance. By last night it was so bad she could barely walk. Chin Soon had obviously been losing weight despite still having her usually strong appetite for chicken gravy. I'm just not sure she was eating much of anything else. She was weak but it didn't look at all the same as when she had insulinoma. She just plain looked miserable.

I was able to reach Dr. Powers around 10 PM last night and she really came through for Chin Soon and for me. Based on her instructions I gave Chin Soon 0.05ml of pediapred (1mg/ml concentration) as an anti-inflammatory. We still had pred in the house from when she was taking it for insulinoma. I also gave her a tiny amount of famotidine (generic for Pepcid AC) crushed up in some more gravy. I've been offering her gravy every three to four hours since then. If need be Dr. Powers offered to see Chin Soon today on an emergency basis. Thankfully it wasn't necessary.

The good news is that Chin Soon seems to have turned the corner and is slowly improving. She's more perky and is eating plenty of gravy when offered. She doesn't feel nearly as light. I checked her blood glucose just in case and it was a nice, normal 101 this morning. Dr. Powers called to check up on Chin Soon and instructed me to continue the pediapred once a day for another couple of days and to continue carafate (now discontinued for the other ferrets) and the famotidine for another four days. We'll touch base on Monday or Tuesday.

Chin Soon is scheduled for her rabies vaccination and having her teeth cleaned right after the 4th of July holiday. Right now it's an open question whether or not we'll go ahead with either of those things. It all depends on how she recovers from here on out.

Pressure Cooker On The Stove For Bob Church's Chicken Gravy

Next week will be five and a half years since Ella's first vet visit after Celia Wright rescued her. At that time the vet guesstimated her age to be one year old. Yep, she's definitely a senior ferret now.

Let's assume that guess on her age was spot on. Ella was an adult ferret at the time so she couldn't be much younger. She's also a Marshall Farms ferret. I've had ferrets live to be up to 10 years old but I've never had a Marshall's see their seventh birthday. Whether that's just plain bad luck or something about the way the country's largest ferret breeder raises their kits is an open question.

I'm also certainly more knowledgeable about ferret health and nutrition than I once was. I'd like to believe I can keep my current ferrets, all of whom were bred by Marshall Farms, healthy and happy a bit longer simply by doing preventative things and giving them the best possible food.

I've mentioned Bob Church's Chicken Gravy before as something I give ailing and recovering ferrets. I've also mentioned Pam Sessoms' Pressure Cooker Method as the easiest way to make it. A number of ferret owners in the area, including Pam, do give gravy in limited quantities to their healthy ferrets each day. Pam did this for both Ella and Zephyr in the time she took care of them after Celia Wright became ill and before I adopted them. Since they already had the gravy habit I kept it going.

Here we are, nearly four years later, and all three ferrets have been happy and healthy pretty much the whole time. Ella has had no recurrence of adrenal disease in nearly four years and neither Zephyr nor Chin Soon has had any serious health problems as of yet. Does feeding them a little gravy every day in addition to kibble help? A lot of ferret owners and some vets seem to think so. It's certainly worth the extra bit of work every month or two to make it for them.

I know one thing for certain: I'd like to see these three Marshall Farms bred ferrets all have seventh birthdays. I'd like them to be happy and healthy at eight and nine too.