Heartworm medication

Question
QUESTION: I have two ferrets, they are both a little over four months old. They are very picky and will not eat any treats or other foods besides kibble. Anywyas, my vet reccomended I use interceptor as a heatworm preventative, but its a pill and im supposed to crush it up and mix it with some sort of food such as baby food but since they dont eat anything but kibble, i have no way to do this. So my question is, is there a way to do this without mixing it with food (noting that the pill is pretty big) or should i get a different medication? and which kind if different?

ANSWER: Hi Jessi,

Have you tried Ferretone with your ferrets yet? It is really helpful in situations like this. You could start drizzling Ferretone on a little bit of baby food and warm it up. They might enjoy that. The key is to get them used to a food before you try and put medicine in it. Try and feed them meat baby food a couple times before you try and hide the medicine in it. In the meantime, don't take them outside because they will be unprotected from heartworms. But I don't have any suggestions as far as which medications are the better ones. I do know that whatever you put the medicine in should be something high in protein - i.e. meat baby food, eggs, etc. Just drizzle the Ferretone on what you're trying to get them to eat and that should get them licking! Once they will eat the food, you're in business! You could also try Uncle Jim's Duck Soup mix by Marshall's. That is supposed to be really easy to get ferrets on!

I hope this helps and please don't hesitate to ask if you have any further questions.

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again, I have tried ferretone, which they dont like. I have also tried a couple different types of baby food numerous times and they dont like it either. I have been trying for quite some time to get them to eat other stuff and nothing is appealing to them. Its weird because they are so young still.

Answer
Hello again, Jessi,

Ferretone is such a helpful tool in dealing with ferrets that I really suggest that you get them to like it. My boys didn't like Ferretone right away either, but I *nudged* them into it. What you wanna do is put a little Ferrtone on your finger and put it on their mouth, gums and maybe even a touch on the nose. This way, they will get the taste of it. I'm going to warn you - this may take a while, but both my boys love this stuff now. Do that a few times, and they might take to it right then. If not, put a little on their bellies and on their face like I said before, and, gently, nudge their noses toward their bellies. If that doesn't work right away, try again! Like I said, this could be a very long process.

Also, I'm not sure if you knew this, but the reason that ferrets don't take to new food is because they imprint on their foods with their olfactory nerves. If it doesn't smell like the food their imprinted on, they don't think its food. That is why its so hard to get them to change to anything new! If you wanted to, you could crush up some kibble, mix that in with some warm water to make a sludge and see if that works and if they like that, then crush up the pill and put it in the sludge! Make sure they like the sludge BEFORE you do this, though, so you don't waste the pill!

I hope this helps and if it still doesn't work, please let me know and we'll brainstorm some more!

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews