Ferret Harness

Question
I always kept a harness on all 3 of my ferrets since I've had them, well my boyfriend had took it off of one of them and noticed dry blood and fur gone. It looks terrible. How do I get this to heal? I feel like a horrible owner, I cried. Is there anyway to help heal the skin again?

Answer
usually animals will heal quite well on their own once the too tight harness is removed (or maybe there was something in the harness that she became allergic to. I mostly work with cats and dogs, so my handouts are geared to them, but much is the same. Normally I would not answer your email because of my lack of knowledge of ferrets, but I want to help a bit. Please do not get mad at yourself. You are doing your best, and sometimes things happen.

FOR NOW
1. snip hair away from the wounds .
2. clean with a mild shampoo, preferably herbal (really herbal, not just fake advertising)
3. Get a. Rescue Remedy; b. Calendula; c. organic drinkable aloe vera or squeeze from the plant. dilute if tinctures 10 drps per 1/2 C water, use straight if lotion or cream (like cats, ferrets may have a problem with wanting to clean off the cream, but I am not sure since I do not treat ferrets. Pay attention to how she feels after putting on the treatment. If she does not like your treatment, gently wash it off and try another. All of these will help the skin heal.

FOR LATER
1. find an integrative vet who works with exotics. Go to my links page to contact every holistic association to look for a vet near you, or a homeopathic one who can help by phone.
2. I strongly recommend getting some training in understanding the wide range of approaches to health so you can be in charge of what you choose for treatments for your animals. There are so many different ways to stimulate healing that you never need to give up trying. From books, on-line and in classes you can learn Reiki (which can take the "bad" out of vaccines and any needed drugs, or even make food healthier), massage, HTA, TTouch, acupressure, flower essence therapy, all of which are 100% safe to use for any problems. There are many more approaches you can do to help heal your animals with some training since they need to be used more carefully - homeopathy, herbal medicine, Chinese herbs, aromatherapy. In addition to classes there are many very good list serves filled with people experienced with not vaccinating and feeding raw meat diets. Classes are found through your health food store, by phone or on-line. As with human health approaches, there are many different opinions, so you need to experiment and see what makes your animals more or less healthy.

More on Reiki - Personally, I think every person who lives with or works with animals must know at least Level I Reiki. The practitioner offers this energy and the animal comes over to get it (or places her hands upon the animal), or it can be done from a distance, even around the world with the intent for healing to occur. The energy flows through the healer into the animal. This is based on directly applying Chi (energy) to rebalance the energy field so it no longer needs to produce the physical symptoms. It is a very good adjunct to any healing modality, especially to relieve pain and inflammation. I have seen cats who began to eat again when their food was treated with Reiki. It also "takes the bad out of" things. By doing Reiki on smelly water in restaurants I have been able to drink sweet tasting and smelling water. Use Reiki anytime that you must give injections, vaccines, drugs, flea or heartworm drugs, or other substances with potential toxicity. Reiki is great to calm animals, relieve discomfort, and can deeply heal some problems in some animals.  

1. Great information on Reiki - http://www.reikicourse.org.
2. Kathleen Prasad is a wonderful teacher and works with my favorite sanctuary and holistic education center, BrightHaven www.brighthaven.org. Kathleen leads a free monthly telechat for anyone trained in Reiki and using it with animals.http://www.animalreikisource.com/.

3. If you cannot find a Reiki Class near you (same class for people and animals as it connects you through an "attunement" to the healing energy of the universe, making you a channel of healing), the following groups offer long distance, free, attunements.

a. http://theholisticcare.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13,
b. http://freereikiattunement.com/
c. Christine at cbearse@earthlink.net, www.awakeningrainbows.com. To receive free distance Reiki send her your first name only, city and state, and whether or not you have had any Reiki training.  She invites you to include your pets as well.  She uses a teddy bear and does a full body Reiki distance treatment for one hour each Sunday evening from 9 p.m. until 10 p.m. EST.
d. And a team of over 100 healers will send free healing energy until you say not to. Email Barbara at nancelot01@aol.com with your healing request, name of animal, species, color & age. In the subject say request through Dr. Chambreau

4. for a fee:
Excellent recommendation in 2015 - http://reikishamanic.com/
www.ReikiBlessings.com offers many types of energy healing classes- search a bit to find the reiki ones or email them. Long distance healing and training is at www.animalhealers.homestead.com.
5. Get a free treatment for yourself at www.interdimensionalhealing.com.