Interview with Jeff Rhody Part 1
PL: G’day everyone or evening, wherever you are.
It’s Philip here again. It’s early in the morning here with temperatures just a little above
freezing so I’m not particularly happy about that.
I’m talking today with Jeff Rhody from the Lakeside Veterinary Center in Laurel, Maryland. Jeff
is one of the wonderful group of vets who put their hands up and kindly offered to answer some
questions about ferret care and health issues today and I’ve ask him to do something a little
different for this segment.
A surprising number of ferret owners have told us that they aren’t close to a ferret vet and can’t
wait to get hold of this resource to pass to their own vet.
So, I’ve asked Jeff to slant his responses to be useful to those vets who don’t know a lot but want
to know more. More of the techie stuff, I guess.
So welcome Jeff!
JR: Thank you.
PL: Jeff, first of all can I get you to tell the listeners a little about yourself and your experience
with ferrets.
JR: Sure. Well first of all let me say that it’s 90 degrees here in Maryland and it’s 7:15 in the
evening so I’m happier than you are.
PL: Mmm, terrific!
JR: Let me see. I graduated from the Ohio State Veterinary College here in the United States in
1983 and since then I’ve been seeing small mammals quite a bit. Right now I’m currently in and
since 1988 been the owner of my own practice so I’m the only veterinarian there and my case
load is 60% dog and cat and 40% not dog/cat. My practice is actually 15% rabbit so I see quite a
bit of small mammals.
Umm, are you there?
PL: Yes, yes I am.
JR: Okay. Umm so the only other thing I’d add is that I am currently, umm, well not currently
but next year, in 2011, I will hopefully be taking and hopefully be passing the American Board
of Veterinarian Practitioners Certification Test of Small Mammals.
PL: Okay. Excellent! So thanks for that, Jeff. Let’s get started, and don’t forget to include
some of that special vets-only stuff.
First question … how do ferrets’ nutritional need differ from that of a dog or cat and why is that
important?
JR: Well, dogs are omnivores and cats are carnivores. Ferrets are really considered
‘supercarnivores’.
What that means is that they require a high protein, high fat diet with very little, if any,
carbohydrates.
The ferret gastrointestinal tract is physiologically unable to handle digestion and absorption of
significant carbohydrates. They have a very short and small intestinal tract and their transit time
from ingestion of food to defecation is about 4 hours. They’re also deficient in some of the
brush border enzymes required for carbohydrate digestion efficiently.
So translated into reality, what that means is that we need to feed our ferrets FERRET FOOD,
not dog or cat food.
There are many kibbled diets available for ferrets and many brands. The kibbled diets contain
some carbohydrates that have to be added for the kibbling process. There’re other diets that
some people will choose including EVO and Wysong’s Archetype diets - they may be preferable
but I ‘m not recommending any brand. There just may be more things coming to the market
soon. Just pay attention as a veterinarian and a ferret owner to the protein, fat, and carb content.
Treats should probably be limited to high protein, low carb products and a small piece of chicken
or very small piece of liver makes a great treat. I know some people who choose to offer a live
or a stunned mouse as a treat.
One other important point I’d like to add is that ferrets with diarrhea should NOT be given fiber
supplementation. We use that a lot for dogs and cats but fiber is a complex carbohydrate and
will not help and would probably make the diarrhea worse.
PL: Okay. A couple of subsequent questions to that, please. What are the percentages,
maximum/minimum for those key ingredients you said, Jeff.
JR: I wish I could tell you. I don’t have that stuff immediately available. Do you want me to get
back to you on that?
PL: No. I think it’s about 30 something percent protein and 20 something percent fat. What I
will do is I’ll put an Editor’s Note into the transcript of this when I’ve found that out.
I’m sorry – by all means, yes. Flick me an email and get me those number.
JR: No problems, I just wrote this not expecting to give figures but that’s fine.
PL: That’s okay.
Here in Australia there’s a significant segment of the ferret owners’ population who are all for,
what they call a natural diet, so day-old chicks, that kind of stuff. What’s your comment on that?
JR: Well, I think that a live prey diet is perhaps a very good one. I think that we need to be
cognizant of the fact that ferrets do, in nature and the polecat in nature eat whole prey and from
what I understand – having not owned ferrets and fed them wild or live prey diets – is I do hear
that, whereas we see in the pet ferret population usually a very soft stool, which is considered to
be normal.
I understand that their stool really gets what we normally consider nice and firm on a live prey
diet. I also understand from some of Bob Church’s work that the wild ferrets who, of course, are
on live prey and the polecats had a much reduced amount of evidence of periodontal disease and
other things related to dental problems and the thought is that maybe the hair in the coat helps
that as well as far as dental disease, so I have no problem at all with live prey diets.
I just think we have to be very careful about making sure that it’s a balanced diet – that we give
variety because we really can’t figure out arrogantly that oh okay, I guess my ferrets only going
to eat mice.
PL: Yes.
I think that a variety’s good. I also think, what I understand about the diets of ferrets in nature
and from a historical perspective is that even though the animal that you’re eating might have
eaten a lot of carbs, they don’t general ingest a lot of the gastric content. So even though they’re
eating whole prey, they’re eating very few carbs.
PL: Okay. Thank you for that! Interesting that you mentioned Bob Church. He came to our
house on his visit to Australia a few years ago. So, nice chap.
JR: Yeah. Very nice guy, very nice guy. And very knowledgeable in his field.
PL: Very dedicated too.
Okay, second question … how can you tell if a ferret has a gastrointestinal obstruction?
JR: Well that’s a good question ‘cause it isn’t always that easy.
Ferrets love to hunt. They find things and they hide them. And most ferret owners have a ferret
stash somewhere in their home, usually behind the refrigerator is a common site here in the
States.
The stash is filled with items of interest stolen by their ferrets. During a ferret’s home hunting
explorations they often going to run into things they like to eat. They LOVE to eat rubber and
they love to eat foam!
I like to divide the ferret patients I see with GI disease into two different groups – ferrets under a
year of age and those over a year of age. The younger ferrets are very prone to intestinal
obstruction, most commonly the small intestine and symptoms are often very vague and nonspecific.
In my experience the most common presentation is a ferret with fairly acute onset of
deterioration clinically. They’re weak, they’re lethargic. I like to call them “limp rags”.
As opposed to dogs and cats, vomiting is most commonly NOT seen with intestinal
obstruction with ferrets.
So any ferret under a year of age that has the clinical picture I described should probably be seen
as soon as possible.
Examination may reveal a painful abdominal focus when you palpate the abdomen. But this can
be the site of the foreign body but cases where there isn’t an obstruction, you might be feeling a
painful lymph node.
Abdominal radiography may or may not show obstructive pattern, and the foreign bodies are
rarely radio-opaque so X-rays, while they can help, may not be diagnostic.
Ultrasound may be helpful, but I don’t generally ultrasound these guys because I don’t have that
service readily available on an immediate basis.
I recommend that you stabilize the patient -- with attention to hydration and cardiovascular status
-- and I’d take the ferret to exploratory surgery hopefully before day’s end.
In my experience, the longer you wait, the worse the intestinal damage if an obstruction is
present. Remember these guys have a very short small intestine and you want to avoid resection.
Some cases have a negative exploratory, meaning you don’t find an obstruction, but I’ve always
explained to the owners this possibility. The problem is that if you find yourself in a situation
that you’ve delayed surgery for a definitive diagnosis, you may lose your patient to a curable
disease.
Ferrets older than a year of age are much less likely to develop this kind of obstruction. In the
older group, gastric trichobezoars, or hairballs, are fairly common. They either can be an
incidental finding at surgery or a cause of significant malaise, and not wanting to eat and
possibly vomiting.
PL: Okay. Umm, my input into that, Jeff, aimed specifically at ferret owners is that you’ve got to
watch out for things like the little foamy bits off your iPod, ear plugs, be acutely aware of
anything around the place, beanbags are just a nightmare. If you see something that’s been
chewed off the corner of something that’s rubber, as you’ve said … danger signs!
And this whole things is very near and dear to my heart because a few years ago we had a ferret
which had been into the clinic for, I think, some kind of surgery (it’s a long time ago now), came
out, the ferret went downhill quite quickly and it was, of course, a Sunday night, as it always is
when these things happen, and we took the ferret to the only after-hours clinic which was luckily
quite close, and she had swallowed an olive pit! A thousand dollars later we got her back!
So, you really got to pay attention with these people.
JR: Yes you do, and the other thing I’d say since you mentioned certain things … I have seen
the ear plugs that go in for hearing protection - the expandable ones - when they get into their
stomach they get quite big and if they try to pass the intestines there’s a problem.
Also any time they get under the sofa or under a chair – a lot of times they are chewing that foam
underneath there so just be careful.
PL: Absolutely! Tip your chair up and the wreckage that’s under there is just unbelievable!
JR: Yes, yes! And if you look under your fridge you’ll find everything else they’ve stolen from
you!
PL: Oh yes. Actually interesting you mentioned that because I’m sure it’s a problem
potentially where you are … they will find a bit of food or something and they’ll stash it, it’ll go
off and then they’ll eat it. So you have to be extremely careful with that.
JR: Well I think there’s a real natural reason for that. Remember their intestinal transit time is
only 4 hours so they don’t eat a lot but they eat frequently and what they’ll do is that they take
their prey, they’ll go off and they’ll kill it and they’ll eat it and they won’t necessarily eat it all.
They’ll stash some of it and then they’ll go back and eat it later so I think that’s a very natural
behavior for them.
PL: Mmm. Umm. One little anecdote about that – many years ago we had a canary in a cage in
our house. One day the canary is missing, my wife went and opened her underwear drawer and
there was the top half of a canary staring at her! So! ‘Cause the ferrets had stolen it …
JR: That would have made a Godfather movie!
(laughter)
PL: Oh yeah yeah, she freaked out!
Okay, next one … are ferrets prone to dental disease?
JR: Well in my practice, I commonly see ferrets developing calculus and tartar just like dogs
and cats do.
You know, we’re really not sure what causes this in dogs and cats and certainly not in ferrets, but
you know I think that genetics, undetermined factors, or diet play a role.
We were talking about Bob Church earlier. I think that there’s significant zooarcheological
evidence to suggest that periodontal disease is less common in wild ferrets and in the polecats.
And for all the veterinarians I do suggest reading Bob Church’s chapter on Dental pathology in
the Lewington ferret text.
But periodontal disease in ferrets can be treated similar to that of the cat. A simple scaling may
be more damaging than doing the suprs- and subgingival scaling followed by a polishing.
And ideally, of course, dental radiographs should be used to stage the degree of disease.
We see quite a lot of abrasion. Abrasion is the wear of teeth from unusual and not natural
materials as opposed to teeth grinding on each other. Abrasion and fractured teeth are very
common in my practice, especially if a ferret tends to chew its cage or whatever.
Frequently affected teeth are the canines, we see that most often there. And we do see abscesses
– we see what is called alveolar osteitis, which is an inflammation of the bone in the tooth
socket and we also see slowly progressive extrusion of teeth out of the socket or out of the
alveolus. They occur fairly commonly and I treat those similar to dogs and cats.
Fractured teeth are fairly often fractured horizontally and I had a case not three months ago
where a ferret came in, was pawing at its mouth and wasn’t eating and the veterinarian thought it
might be an insulinoma because we do see that commonly with those symptoms.
And lo and behold this ferret had broken a tooth and the entire root was still underneath the gum
line and it was its only problem. We went in surgically and removed the tooth and the ferret did
fine.
So you gotta be careful and again, I think just like with dogs and cats, it’s very difficult to
practice and perform anything dental – anything with dentistry and the ferret , as well as a dog
and a cat, without a dental X-ray you really are behind the 8 ball, not knowing what’s under the
gum line.
PL: Mmm, okay. Just a small point from me on that. We feed – I say we, they’re my wife’s
bloomin’ ferrets – but um, she feeds them almost exclusively on dry cat food – Iams dry cat food.
Iams? Yes, Iams dry cat food which we’ve done for years and they thrive on that and almost
without exception, probably without exception, all the ferrets we’ve taken to the vet over the
years, the vet has always said “What wonderful teeth”. I’m not saying it’s linked, I’m just
saying that that’s our experience.
JR: Well maybe it’s good genetics. Let me ask you a question since you feed them Iams – what
is their stool like?
PL: It is mid- to dark brown. Soft. A bit like brown toothpaste.
JR: So it is, it’s soft, okay. OK, because that’s what we all consider to be normal but I’m not
sure it’s really normal. That’s the most common stool and the ferrets have had that stool don’t
necessarily have disease but I do believe that if we fed them or those animals that were on a
more natural diet, so to speak a live prey diet or a stunned prey diet that they would have a firmer
stool.
So .. again, I would caution you’re having success with it. I’m very cautious, we used to feed
cats, ferret food to cats here all the time and we just identified that cats do require quite a bit of
carbohydrates, they do handle it well. And the ferrets generally don’t, so I’m a little bit
concerned about that as a matter of practice.
PL: No, that’s absolutely fine. We’re very restricted here as to what we can obtain and I have
to tell you, if you mention to my wife live prey or even stuff made out of meat, she’ll freak out, so
…
(laughter)
JR: I understand. We do have that reaction a lot.
(more laughter)
PL: Yes, you do have to understand that.
JR: Like you talk about Church that’s only …
PL: Yeah. Actually he said our ferrets’ teeth were really good as well so … well, that’s
interesting.
JR: Good!
PL: Alright! Next one … what are the common ectoparasites of ferrets? They’re the outside
ones, right?
JR: Yes, yes. I think that everybody can relate to the fact that fleas and ticks are ectoparasites.
Everything’s on the outside when you talk about ecto.
PL: Yes.
JR : The number one parasite I see in my practice which is an ectoparasite is the ear mite.
These mites are identical to the ear mites of dogs and cats and dogs and cats can catch the ones
that ferrets get and vice versa.
All the ferrets I see in my practice get tested for ear mites with a microscopic exam in my office
of some ear wax put on mineral oil and when I get a sample, for a ferret who seems to scratch a
lot when I get it, it’s more likely to have mites than one who doesn’t. However, if they don’t
scratch it doesn’t mean they don’t have it and if they scratch it doesn’t mean they have it, so
you’ve got to look.
Treatment is similar to dogs and cats. That particular patient and all the in-contact susceptible
pets should be treated. I use a commercially available ivermectin ear medicine, but use of the
injectable ivermectin of 1% is effective as well.
The second most common parasite seen in my practice is the flea.
Fleas can be treated as for cats, including Fipronil and Nytenpyram. In the United States that’s
Frontline and Capstar.
Flea allergic dermatitis, when you see that in a ferret – the hallmark of that as opposed to the
dog, where they lose hair and itch from the middle of the back and the cat which gets a rash
usually around the neck or around the rump, ferrets tend to get a red rash right between their
shoulder blades.
So if you see that and the presence of fleas, and you’ve got an itchy ferret, that’s a good sign
that’s a flea allergy.
But a big, big, big differential for the itchy ferret is adrenal gland disease so I would never want
anyone to get tunnel vision and think fleas when in reality adrenal gland disease is probably
much more common.
I have had occasional cases of demodectic mange. I have never seen sarcoptic mange but it is not
at all uncommon in other practices and, in fact, I understand it’s a common diagnosis in Australia
as a cause of pododermatitis, which is an inflammation of the feet.
Of course in a number of ferrets we can see ticks, we can see fly strike, which are maggots, and
there are other mites which are possible if they’re outdoors.