From:
Steve Austin
Date: 2001-04-01 01:58:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] sick ferret?
I have a female MF ferret that is about 1 1/2 years old that is
acting strangely tonight. She's normally very active, but tonight
she doesn't offer to get down when I hold her. She eagerly ate
Gerber chicken baby food and her Ferrovite, but she's just not acting
like her chipper self. She has no vomiting, coughing, diarrhea or
any other symptoms that I've noticed. I'm not aware of any accident
or anything out of the ordinary. Does anyone have any idea what
might be going on with her? Since she ate well, I'm hesitant to take
her to the emergency clinic which is over an hour from me. The only
time I've been there, I wasn't impressed with the vet. He openly
admitted that he doesn't know a whole lot about ferrets. I'd
appreciate any help or insight. Thanks!
Rhea
This is not so easy to comment on since you are talking about only a few
hours of changed behavior.
From experience, I have many times panicked because I saw one strange
poop, or a ferret less active then normal, even one coughing or gagging
for a few seconds. What I have found is that it is more important to
look at the whole picture, and watch for patterns of behavior.
1 1/2 is young, and the chances of something like juvenile lymphoma is
remote, although always a concern as any ferret owner knows that the
threat of some cancer/tumor always lurks as a possibility/fear/panic
attacks...
Watch her over the next day or so, look for serious signs like vomiting,
persistent diarrhea, no stools, not eating,fever, etc. If the only
problem is less activity then wait and see.
Sometimes us owners are so protective of these guys that we may worry too
much.
Why baby food? Was she not eating otherwise? Maybe, separate her to see
how much she is eating and how much she is pooping/peeing,etc.
Patty
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