Author: mrisinger

Librarian, crafter, ferret wrangler, geek

Minsc is always up to no good

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So Minsc was having trouble understanding that he need to go to the bathroom in the litter, not every available corner. That means I had to block all of the corners I could to dissuade him, hence the cardboard tube you see attached to the door. However, he soon discovered that omg it’s a tube must play! As you can see, he likes to crawl in there and gnaw away at the other end. At least he’s happy, right?

The Half Naked Ferret

Pog took Ys to the vet Tuesday for her ultrasound. She now has a shaved belly as well as a shaved neck, and is all around quite pathetic. The boys are helping to keep her warm–even Minsc! I’ll post pogle’s summary of the trip, as he explained the situation to some email friends:

Took Ysabell to the vet for an ultrasound yesterday, she had some
bloodwork done last week that showed liver problems. Ultrasound didnt
find evidence of cancer thankfully, so now we get the joy of feeding a
ferret nasty-tasting antibiotics twice a day for the next two weeks.
And if that doesn’t fix her problem (shes lost a lot of weight and is
very out of sorts), the next best guess for what’s wrong with her
is…Crohn’s disease/IBD. I’ll let you decide why that might be
amusing to me. But at least theres a chance we can treat her now.

We’re using ferretone and chicken broth to help convince her to take her meds (thank goodness they’re liquid). She’s still eating well (and eating wet cat food), but she’s still tiny. I don’t think her weight has changed further. I splurged and got her some of the “good” canned cat foods (meat as the first 3 ingredients on the list and/or no grain varieties) and we’re experimenting with those:

  • Wellness canned cat food: very thick pate, so I added a lot of water; it took her a long time to eat, so I’m going to start splitting the cans and only giving her half at a time. She did eat it though.
  • Merrick Gourmet: she’s trying her first can this morning. We’ll see if the bowl is empty by tonight.

Since we were taking Ys anyways (and our vet offers free dayboarding), we went ahead and got Minion and Minsc a deslorelin implant to try to pre-empt the development of adrenal disease in either. It is a contraceptive and should keep their bodies from creating too many hormones which would just end up in their adrenal gland, and thus causing the issues. Jack Jack is almost a plumpy on the medication! Ysabell will get an implant as well, once she’s well. The implants should be effective for a year or so, so I think we’re just going to treat it as yet another yearly vaccine the ferrets need. By starting them early (before they have the disease), we hope to extend and improve the quality of their lives.

Quick Ysabell Update

The vet ran some tests and thinks there is something wrong with Ysabell’s liver, so she is scheduled to get an ultrasound next week to try and learn more about what’s going on. My wallet would cry, but Ysabell has already stashed it.*

Oh, and they shaved her neck today. I’ll try and get some pictures for you tonight. XD

She’s eating really well, at least. She seemed to be having some trouble with the kibble, so I’ve been leaving an extra bowl of canned cat food out every day. By the next day it’s usually empty–and she’s the only one I’ve seen eating it. We won’t talk about the effect it is having on the litter cleaning chore, though. Ew.

What I’ve learned:

  • Friskies canned cat food (real chunks of meat) just gets spread around the cage after all of the liquid is licked off.
  • Fancy Feast (pate style) is popular with a bit of extra water mixed in.
  • Iams doesn’t seem to be popular, but I tried the original can on the first day so we’ll see how she likes the second one now that she’s use to this type of food.
  • Chicken baby food is approved when thinned with water, but doesn’t really get her excited.

 

*Not really, but you know she would if given the chance. 😉

**3/27/11 – Fixed some of the cat food reactions (I confused Friskies and Fancy Feast).

Ysabell being weighed

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She’s lost 2 ounces for no reason that we can determine and feels like a bag of bones when we pick her up. She goes to see the vet with JJ tomorrow. JJ is reacting wonderfully to the Lupron shots: he’s regrown all of his hair but that on his tail, and even that is beginning to peach fuzz.

The kitchen scale + bucket is about the only way to get a ferret to sit still long enough for you to weigh them.

Minsc: A Portrait

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So it turns out that raising a kit is A LOT OF WORK. Between giving him lots of attention, surviving extra long playtimes with all fingers attached (he’s nippy still), and cleaning up the accidents, we’re exhausted at night and haven’t been taking many photos.

That’s my excuse, anyways.

Isn’t he cute with the odd swirls? We named him after this guy.

Good news!

Ysabell didn’t kill Minsc last night.

We’ve been taking our time socializing the ferrets, letting the older ferrets get used to Squirt. Minsc has his own cage (our one story, folding travel cage) that he lives in alone (with occasional visits from JJ). A few times we’ve put Minsc in the big cage to try and get them all used to living there together (and to spread his smell around it, making him one of the gang). They get shared playtime, however, both in the playroom itself and in the close quarters of the playpen if it’s my morning off work.

Turns out JJ loves to wrestle with Minsc (who mostly just runs away), Minion thinks he’s fun too (Minsc will wrestle with him more than JJ), and Ysabell hates his guts (Minsc squaks like he’s dying the minute she gets near him).

She’s slowly coming out of it, but for the past few weeks she’d approach Minsc, groom him a bit, then latch onto his neck and SHAKE. This would naturally result in lots of squealing from Minsc. I spent a good 10 minutes one day just watching them and yelling “YSABELL!” whenever she got near his neck.

I’ll tell you one thing: she knows her freaking name, that’s for sure.

Everytime, she’d stop and look at me. Maybe shuffle a few steps back. And watch. After a few moments she’d start stretching her neck out to Minsc, which would get her scolded again.

After that little training session she’s been doing better, enough so that we let Minsc sleep in the big cage last night (I’m a light sleeper when it comes to the ferrets, and could be awake and running in less than a minute). I didn’t hear a peep, even when I woke up with insomnia at 5AM.

Pog says there was some squaking earlier today, but for the most part it’s been quiet. This could mean several things: Ysabell is in a good mood today, Minsc is learning not to use the baby squak, or Misnc is getting really good at tiptoeing around Ysabell.

My money is on #3, seeing as I got to watch him tiptoeing earlier tonight. Ysabell stole his bed while he was in the litter bin, and he had to walk by the bed to get to the ramp up. He very quietly got out of the litter and, with his body low to the ground, started slowly walking toward the ramp. All the time he was as quiet as a mouse and stayed out of her sight range.

Smart little thing. He may just survive kit-hood with this bunch after all.