From:
ferrethealer@aol.com
Date: 2001-07-15 18:48:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Digest Number 285
In a message dated 07/13/01 2:03:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
Ferret-Health-list@yahoogroups.com writes:
She
seems to be grieving for Jonesy even though they had never really
appeared
to
be that close. She is not eating (at least that I can see), she
wants to
sleep all the time, when out to play she runs to where Jonesy used
to sleep
and curls up there and sleeps. Today she started grinding her
teeth and
has
developed really bad smelling breath so I started her on Pepcid.
She does
not
want to be held and refuses to look at me when I do hold her.
Can anyone give me advise on how to help my grieving little girl?
I would
be
devastated if I lose another of my little ones.
This is a very hard situation - I am sorry for your loss. You
definitely
were on the right track by letting the remaining ferrets say
good-bye, but
sometimes that just isn't enough. When I lost my Moon, her cagemate
Boo was
devastated. She was very angry with me and would glare at me
whenever I was
in the room. When let out of her cage, she looked for Moon, and
when put
back in her cage, she looked for Moon. It took weeks for her to get
back to
anything approaching normal behavior. It actually took getting a
new ferret,
as she hated all of the other ones that I had at the time. Raven
isn't my
ferret, he's Boo's ferret!
I did as much as I could to help her, and that's all you can do with
your
own. Lots of love, as much attention as she'll tolerate, extra food
(something yummy!), and Pepcid if the tooth grinding continues.
Also, the
fact that they didn't seem all that close can be very misleading -
the
interactions are subtle, and she's obviously very upset. Poor girl.
Dr. Ruth
*****************************************
Save lives - spay or neuter your pet.