I received the following email from a pharmacy student on the Ferret Mailing List. As many ferrets require medications in sufficiently different dosages or flavors than are traditionally stocked by medical practitioners. Through compounding, drugs may be "custom-made" for ferret patients. Please note that the reprint of this letter is provided as a service to ferret owners, and does not represent endorsement of this particular pharmacy for this purpose. Also please remember that order through this pharmacy must be placed by your veterinarian. - BHW.
"I am a ferret owner of 4, but I am also a pharmacy student. I did a rotation at a compounding pharmacy in NJ for 5 weeks. While I was there, I set up a "ferret formulary". I did a survey on the FML a few months back on Ferret Favorite Flavors/Foods/Etc. I used this information to base the ferret formulary on.
I am no longer at the compounding pharmacy, however, I left all my work with them. I set up a formulary including chloramphenicol palmitate suspension, proglycem (diazoxide) suspension, enalapril suspension, metronidazole(flagyl) suspension, prednisolone solution, atenolol liquid, bismuth subsicilate (pepto bismol) suspension, diltiazem liquid, enrofloxacin suspension, Furosemide liquid, and prednisone suspension. These are available in several flavors that ferrets may enjoy and at a very reasonable cost. This is not an all inclusive list of compounds available. Your veterinarian can contact the pharmacy for a complete listing for small animal, exotics, avian, equine, and/or human medications.
Ferret Flavors available include: apple, banana, banana-molasses, bubble gum, caramel, cherry, cherry-vanilla, chicken, chocolate, cola, honey, marshmallow, molasses, peanut butter, strawberry, tutti-frutti, vanilla, watermelon, wild cherry. The flavor used for ALL medications is cherry-vanilla unless the veterinarian specifies one of the above listed flavors alternately.
I hope this info helps you and those you come in contact with. Please pass this info along. This pharmacy is in Sewell, NJ and ships nationwide with a few days of ordering. You, the customer, cannot place an order or request pricing info. Please give this info to your veterinarian, who can order for you. The pharmacy info is provided below:
Wedgewood Pharmacy
279 C Egg Harbor Rd
Sewell, NJ
1-800-331-8272
FAX 1-800-589-4250."