Aren't these things supposed to come in three's?!

You know, next time a novice ferret owner decides to give in to the lure of "ferret math", they should be shown my picture as a warning! I'm by no means a collector (only 5 ferrets now, 7 at the peak), but I didn't think about three or four years into the future when I first started getting them. When they get older, they get sick, and now all of mine are getting the usual ferret issues at the same age.

What has happened, you ask?

Well, after the disastrous month of March, I thought for sure that things would calm down. Bad things come in three's after all, right? Wrong. Jebabba is now having digestive issues. Towards the beginning of the month he started acting listless, having very small diarrhea like poops, and actually threw up a couple times. It was mostly white foam. My first panicked thought was hairball, so I started giving him laxative and feeding him throughout the day (Gerber's Chicken & Chicken Gravy Baby Food). He did better almost immediately, and while his appetite and activity level went back up to normal, he was still having weird poops. So I take him to the vet - he's at just under 2 lbs. Now he's never been a large ferret (he's one of my whippet guys), but he always was just a little over 2 lbs.

We've put him on an antibiotic (Amoxi) and Carafate to help him digest, and while he feels a little heavier, he's still having the strange poops. I'm concerned that it might be IBD, but there is no test one can do for that. The only definitive way to diagnose is through a biopsy, either surgical or via endoscopy. I may take him down to Horsham at the beginning of May to see what Dr. Edling thinks.

But that isn't all the happened...Cheeba had a hypoglycemic episode last week. I had just finished bathing the ferrets, and instead of doing his crazy drying off dance, he just stood there swaying. Then his butt fell over. I just about had a heart attack, as he hadn't shown any symptoms of insulinoma to this point.

I rushed him downstairs in the hopes that it might just be too warm up in the bathroom for him. He didn't get any better, so I rubbed some Karo syrup on his gums. That didn't help, so I rubbed some maple syrup on his gums, and that brought him out of it. About 20 minutes later I fed him some baby food. His appetite was good, and he scarfed down the whole jar of it. Took him to the vet the next day, and his BG level (without fasting) was 60. So needless to say, he's now on Prednisolone too. Thankfully he's already used to getting duck soup twice a day, so at least I don't have to fight him over that!

He's also on Cematadine (sic?), which is Tagamet, to hopefully head off any ulcer problems before they start. Pred can cause ulcers, and in a ferret as prone to ulcers as Cheeba is, this is a real concern. Unfortunately he hates it almost as bad as he hated the Metronidazole. He hasn't peed on me yet, but he did foam at the mouth and make the "this tastes horrible and it's killing me" face. I tried mixing it in with the duck soup, and that made him not eat the duck soup. So I figured it was more important for him to eat the soup than it was to get the medicine in him. He always gets the Pred after a meal, and I give him a baby food snack before I go to bed, so I think he's ok.

So now I have:

• One ferret with insulinoma and recurring ulcers - Cheeba
• One ferret with adrenal disease w/ prostate complications - Mojo
• One ferret with insulinoma and adrenal - Sophie
• One ferret with undiagnosed digestive issues - Jebabba

And....(drum roll please) ONE HEALTHY FERRET - BONK!! Of course, I probably just jinxed myself. At 2 1/2 yrs old, he's about at the age where things are going to start happening.

Anyway, to sum up this long, rambling post (cute pictures next time, I promise), don't forget that ferrets get ill in their old age! Someday you will have gigantic vet bills!



The ferret tip of the day is always plan for the future! As I mentioned above, they will get sick, and possibly all at the same time if they're close in age. If I hadn't planned for this (prepared mentally, no - monetarily, yes), the ferrets wouldn't have been able to receive the care they needed. So remember when you see that cute baby ferret at the pet store and you just can't resist adding it to your group at home - someday that baby ferret will get older, and it will get ill. If you have 4 or more ferrets, and they are all ill at the same time, will you be able to handle it? Think carefully before adding more ferrets!

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ferret, ferrets, Ferret Math, Insulinoma, Adrenal Disease, Ulcers, Hairballs, Ferret Tips