From:
dr_bruce_williams
Date: 2002-01-29 16:31:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Mysterious Death
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "olean420" <olean420@h...> wrote:
> My friend informed today that his ferret died over the weekend.
She
> was about five months old and a Marshall Farms ferret. She was
> playful and active and a completely normal ferret. He told me that
> the morning she died she was playing like normal and then he felt
her
> tugging on his shorts. He stopped to play with her and she bumped
> her nose on his hand playing around. Immediateley after she backed
> off and her eyes got really big. She immediately went to the
> bathroom on the floor like she had lost all functions. He brought
> her to the vet right away and the vet was obviously not ferret
> knowledgable. All he said was that her glucose was high. Through
> the night he brought her to the emergency vet and she didn't get
> better. He brought her home and she could barely move. She was
limp
> and not doing anything. She would lick his finger every once in
> awhile when he would put food on it, but that's it. My friend felt
> that it was not humane to keep her in that state and they had to
put
> her to sleep. He is absolutely devistated and needs closure.
Dear Colleen:
Closure can only be gained in this story by an autopsy. There is no
reason a bump on the nose would cause a ferret to die. While it is
always tempting to come up with some outlandish pssible chain of
events, I think that we should back off and say that without an
autopsy, this is one that will never be solved.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM