crusty eyes

Question
My little guy is 5 years old and has always been healthy.  He lives in a 4 story habitat and eats a variety of food including "ferret chow" and vegetables and fruit.  Nothing has changed except he has developed some kind of eye problem that is making his eyes stick shut.  I have to gently open them for him.  Is there a good way to clean the eyes to remove whatever is causing this?  Can he have a cold?

Answer
Hi Diana,

Do you have any other ferrets in the household? Dogs? Crusty eyes could be a sign of canine distemper which is always fatal in ferrets. I don't know how long it has been since he has been vaccinated, but you can track canine distemper into your home on your shoes. Vaccinations are of the upmost importance. It could be an eye infection or just plain ol' gook like we humans get. Either way, you should really get him into the vet right away because this could be a serious, maybe fatal problem. I would really suggest you get that little guy into the vet.

Also, what do you mean by "ferret chow"? Is that the brand name? What are the ingredients? The protein, fat and fiber breakdowns? A good, high quality ferret food should have at least 34-36% protein, 20-22% fat and no more than 3% fiber in it. Also, the first three to five ingredients should be meat based products, as ferrets are obligate carnivores, which brings me to my next point.

If you are feeding your ferret fruits and vegetables and you have been doing that all his life, I am extremely surprised that he hasn't had an intestinal blockage yet. Ferrets cannot digest fruits and vegetables which means they can EASILY cause blockages in the ferret's GI tract, which is extremely dangerous, because if not caught in time, blockages can lead to a very painful end for your fuzzy and at the very least, a painful and expensive life saving surgery to remove the foreign body from the intestinal tract. Ferrets should never, ever, ever have fruits or vegetables. Stick to meat or eggs (eggs are high in protein, which their body can break down), uncooked or raw. If you are serving raw meat, deboning isn't too big a deal because in raw meat, the bones are rubbery and can be chewed and swallowed with little risk. In cooked meat, deboning the meat is of the utmost importance because cooked bones become hard and brittle, presenting a choking hazard or a risk of internal organ rupture. With eggs and meat, stick to unseasoned, always.

Anyway, back to what I was saying about food, here is a link that I like to give ferret parents. It ranks the foods that ferrets are generally fed on a 1-10 scale, 1 being the worst, 10 being the best. I wouldn't go below a 9 on this scale.

http://www.mdferretpaws.org/care/food_treats.html

If you need to switch your ferret's food, you should do so gradually because you want to avoid upset stomach as much as possible. You should start out with about 85% old food, 15% new food for a few days. If he doesn't mind that, go 75% old food, 25% new food for a few days and so and the reason you should do it that way (other than the upset stomach thing) is that ferrets imprint on the foods they are given at a young age and they don't recognize anything else as food.

I hope this helps you and if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask!

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews