The Schubert Site: Stories about a sable ferret, a tabby cat, and a full and joyful life.
A gallery of adorable ferret pictures
When Schubert broke into our apartment
Why you should think twice before getting a ferret
The day Schubert caught a "mouse"
Schubert and the big red balloon
The Vitamin saga (or the very picky ferret.)
July 30:
Tried giving Schubert the first of his "medicine" today. Dr Huth said that vitamin C would help Schubert's system fight the cancer, so I bought some 500mg caplets, ground them, and took about a fifth of them, or 100mg. Schubert is supposed to get that every day. I've never had kids, but I couldn't imagine that getting kids to take medicine could be any more difficult than getting a ferret to eat medicine.
Schubert simply refused to eat the ground vitamin mixed with turkey-flavored baby food. I mixed the next fifth of it with ferretone. Still no luck. Schubert picked at it when I wasn't looking, but by that time all the vitamin had drifted to the bottom of the ferretone in the spoon. I put my finger in it and tried it. Schubert was right. All I tasted was oranges. I couldn't blame him.
Ground up a bandit ferret treat and mixed it with the next fifth. No luck.
Added ferretone to the bandit and vitamin. No interest.
Finally, in desperation, I dumped out the fourth fifth of the vitamin into a shot glass. Added milk and stirred. I called Schubert, and as he stood at my feet, I drank a few drops of the orange-flavored milk. Pretended to drink more. Offered the glass to him.
Interested, he drank several gulps as I sat with him, smiling smugly. The milk started disappearing, and Schubert plunged his nose into the glass. Followed by a paw. The last of the milk, with most of the vitamin, spilled all over the carpet. (Don't tell Chris.)
I mixed up more for him in a sturdier glass bowl, but I didn't drink out of this one. I couldn't get interest from him for the new milk in the non-person-looking glass bowl. (I'm sure he was saying, "Do YOU drink out of a glass bowl??"
The cat finished the remainder of the milk as I vowed to do better tomorrow.
Stay tuned. Hopefully we'll find something that works.
July 31, 2005:
Schubert was awesome today. I mixed his vitamin C up in milk, and he drank it like a champ. (Does anyone know if milk is bad for ferrets? Schubert loves it.)
He romped with us twice today, once in the morning and once at night. He has no idea that he goes into surgery bright and early tomorrow morning. I took a lot of the food in his bowl, there is a little left but not as much as he would eat even in one sitting.
He's sleeping in his hammock now; he is comfortable and happy and seems to not have a clue that he's sick. I hope that it stays that way for a long time. I hope that he's not too scared tomorrow. I desperately want to be there for him.