Giving a ferret medicine: the right technique, without getting bitten

• Ask your vet which forms the treatment comes in: a liquid is often easier to give a ferret than a tablet.
• Ask too whether it can be mixed with a liquid food, and how to time it around meals.
• Prepare the syringe before you go and get your ferret.
• Work on a thick towel, so your ferret doesn’t slip on a smooth surface.

Vets talk about the ferret “burrito”: a towel wrapped around your ferret stops it wriggling, scratching or hurting itself, without squeezing.

• 1. The right towelAbout three times as wide and twice as long as your ferret.
• 2. WrapPlace your ferret in the middle, fold one side over its back and along its flank, then the other side over the top.
• 3. Around the neckBring the last flap under and around the neck, without tightening: only the head shows.
• 4. HoldKeep your arm along its body and your hand cupped under its neck.

Slip the tip of the syringe into the corner of the mouth, well towards the back. Push slowly, a little at a time, and give your ferret time to swallow in between. Never empty the syringe in one go.

Ferrets have a very fine sense of taste: if the medicine is bitter, following it with a syringe of a liquid food your vet recommends helps take the taste away. Some ferrets end up licking the syringe without being held.

For the ears, only use the prescribed product and never push a cotton bud into the ear canal. For a spot-on parasite treatment, apply it where your vet tells you. Ask your vet to show you how during the appointment.

• Note each dose with the time: when several people look after the ferret, it is the only way to avoid a missed or double dose.
• Give the treatment right to the end, especially an antibiotic, even if the signs have gone.
• If a dose is missed, ask your vet what to do: never double the next dose without advice.
• Keep medicines out of reach: ferrets rummage through bags and drawers, and love chewing packaging.

Ferrets are among the animals most often affected by poisoning with human painkillers, according to the MSD Veterinary Manual. Ibuprofen is more serious for a ferret than for a dog that swallows the same amount, and affects the nervous system, the gut and the kidneys.

MyArk reminds everyone in the household of each dose at the scheduled time. Whoever gives the medicine ticks it off: the others can see it is done, and the dose isn’t doubled.

• One reminder per medicine, at the prescribed time and for the prescribed length
• Each dose ticked off with the time and the person’s first name
• The treatment kept in your ferret’s health record
• The current treatment on the pet sitter sheet, for when someone looks after your ferret