vetasyl for ferrets

Question
Dear Jacquie,  happening upon your answer to a question regarding "choking", "raspy" ferrets may have saved my ferret's life.  She's two years old, on a Wysong kibble diet, and given ferret lax and duk soup regularly.  I know ferret lax is bad for her, but was at a complete loss, as my vet wasn't able to offer advice, and it was better than the alternative - a ferret in distress.  

I am going to order Vetasyl.  May I ask how often you would recommend that I give this to my ferret for "maintenance"?  Also, how many milligrams am I looking for per capsule?  (I read you feed your ferret 1 capsule through plenty of liquids / duk soup.)  

Much gratitude,

Sarah and Peanut the ferret

Answer
Hi Sarah and Peanut:

Thanks so much for reading past replies....so few do that and their answer is often right there!  :-)  i do use Vetasyl, the contents of one capsule (throw the capsule itself away) into about a tablespoonful of Hills A/D or chicken or turkey baby food meat (meat only, not the dinners), enough water to make gravy consistency. Often will have to initially touch some to Peanut's nose and then let him livk it from your fingers to get started be ause they always resist anything new.

When I suspect even a partial blockage, scant poops, raspy coughing, dry gagging, etc, I do a 'full on treatment' which  means (making a new batch every time you feed it) feeding as much as he will eat 3 to 4 times a day for a minimum of three days.  Watch his poops for anything passed, literally take a smooth thing like piece of cardboard, a knife just for that purpose alone, whatever you use, and spread the fresh poop across a paper towel thinly. The parts that do not want to spread are the potentially blockages (or sometimes just poop that has already dried too much. A hairball will look like a little bundle of hard rolled up fur usually.  You may not see that till the third day of intensive treatment.  I have at times done the intensive treatment for up to 7 or 8 days.  Once you do start seeing stuff pass, continue feeding 3-4 times per day till you see nothing more coming out for at leat 24-hours.  This pretty well assures he has had a good cleaning out.

For maintenance, I do a three day, once a day treatment about every 3-4 weeks.  As long as he was cleaned out initially, this seems to be enough to move anything that is starting to build up through.  Again, tho, always check the poops and if you see anything in them while treating, be sure to continue to treat at least another day beyond clear poops.

I would love for you to join me on my Facebook ferret group called THUNDERING FERRET PAWS, where there are ober 200 ferret folks who all try to help each other with tips and tricks and share pictures and stories about our babies. I think you would fit in well. Lots of folks there use the Vetasyl treatments.

Since Vetasyl is basically like Metamucil but for pets, it is 100% safe to use,no need to worry about using it too often, etc., only that there is enough fluid in the soup so the Vetasyl can expand inside the digestive tract and push out whatever is causing a partial blockage.  It is simply a 'bulking agent', does not give the ferret tummyache, diarrhea or anything like that. One could probably safely use it daily, but it would become exhausting handfeeding a ferret constantly, so we try to just do it often enough to keep that intestinal tract clean and clear.  It is important to have them on a good hi protein kibble the rest of the time so they get proper nutrition.  Thats one reason I prefer Hills A/D, which you can only get at the vets office, but it is easily digested and has great nutritional value, much more so than baby food meat.

Thank you for your kind letter. I have great hopes the Vetasyl treatments will help little Peanut and on e you get him on regular maintenance, it lowers his chance of a hairball blockage dramatically.  I am always interested in knowing what eventually comes out the other end, so would love an update.  I had one ferret who had blockage surgery, but did not have big fat poops I expected after surgery, so I put him on the full on Vetasyl treatments and on Day 5 he passed a hairball the size and shape of my little finger!!! (The vet had missed the major blockage in surgery!  THAT is what sold me on these treatments...it took five days to push it out, but he had nice big fat poops after that!  :-)  I hope to see you on the Facebook ferret group!

Sincerely,
Jacquie Rodgers