Well, ferret-math finally did its thing, and I find myself the proud mama
of Kibble, my newest, teensy little baby.  She's sure a cutie, stole my
heart right away.  Then she started in on my wallet.
 
See, I wasn't as observant as I should have been.  After I'd had her home
for a couple of hours, I noticed that her rectum and vulva were protruding.
'This can't be good,' I thought to myself, and took her in to the vet first
thing next morning.  The vet (one of the good exotics specialists in SLC)
didn't seem too concerned, gave me some ointment and said to apply it twice
a day for five days.  Well, today was day six and the vulva is completely
back to normal, but her rectum is still protruding.  It doesn't look
infected, it just sticks out.  So I'll probably have to take her back to
the doc soon.  Anyone had this problem and know how fixable it is?
 
The interesting thing the vet said when I took Kibble in initially is that
the problem with her rectum probably had to do with the surgery to remove
her anal sacs.  He said that when they perform this surgery, they basically
have to rebuild the rectum when they've finished.  Does anyone here know
about the process and if this is really what happens?  Certainly her rectum
has some little mostly healed wounds on it that look like they could have
been from being cut.
 
Kibble also managed to bite the end of one of those little rubber nursing
nipples off a bottle.  The first one I gave her took her about 30 minutes
to chew off and I had the chance to remove the tip so she couldn't swallow
it, but the second one I gave her she had chewed the tip off of in less
than a minute, and I still haven't found it and am assuming she swallowed
it.  I called the emergency vet clinic and talked to them.  Kibble is
acting fine and her poops have been perfectly normal and healthy looking,
but I'll have the vet check that out as well when I go to see him.  Yes,
it was probably stupid on my part to let her chew on rubber, but she seemed
to want to nurse so badly, and I thought that since I was right there
supervising, I'd be able to monitor the condition of the nipple before
there were any problems.
 
So far, I've only introduced her to Boobah.  All three of the others are
too anxious to scruff her around, and she's too little for that behavior.
The vet said it would be a good idea to wait a few weeks until she gets
strong enough to defend herself better.  Is there any concern that
postponing their official meeting will make them dislike each other or
anything?  They'll all aware of her existence and have been chomping at
the bit to start bossing her around.
 
Ah well. Life with ferrets is never boring.
 
Wendy and House Penferret: Boobah, Buttercup, Pica, Flower, and Kibble
[Posted in FML issue 3287]