I seem to have a sick baby.  I was hoping someone could give me some
advice.  One of my ferrets has been getting more and more difficult to
awaken every night after her play time.  We use a squeak toy to call them
when it is time for them to go back into their cage.  It seems to take
longer and longer to wake her up each night, but otherwise she had seemed
the same as usual until tonight.
 
Tonight when I went over to the cage to let them out, she was sound asleep
in their sleep sack.  I pulled out sack and all and started petting her,
which will usually wake her up within 5 minutes at most.  Tonight she was
very sluggish.  After petting her for about 10 minutes, I pulled her out
of the sleep sack onto my chest and continued petting her.  This is not a
ferret that normally likes to be held.  She was still very sluggish, but
finally started moving around a little, but she seemed to be lacking in
coordination at times.  When she finally tried to leave my lap she was
stumbling around, like she was having difficulty walking.
 
My first thought was insulinoma, so I made her eat some food, and also gave
her a little honey.  I eventually put her down, and she crawled off under a
chair and did not come back out.  After waiting 10-15 minutes, I used the
sqeak toy to call her and she did come out, but still seemed very sluggish.
I gave her more food and more honey and held her for a long time.  She
finally got wiggly (more like her usual self), and I put her down and she
walked off (normal gait but not a lot of energy), to her usual sleeping
spot and promptly went to sleep again.  She has not been out of her cage at
all earlier today, and has not tried to play at all.  It has been 4 hours
since I first took her out of the cage.  She has not vomited or shown any
other symptoms, although she did get sick about 6 months ago with vomiting
and diarrhea.  That time I rushed her to the vet thinking she had a
blockage, but the vet said it was giardia.  She was given medication to
treat giardia and IV fluids and returned to normal fairly quickly.  I later
took stool samples (from both ferrets) and it was determined that giardia
was no longer a problem.  That incident may be totally unrelated, but I
thought I would mention it in case it could be important.  That time she
had stopped eating (eventually), but this time at least she will take some
food.  She will be 4 years old in early October.
 
Am I right in thinking insulinoma?  Any other ideas?  Do you think this
is something that can wait until Monday (provided she doesn't get worse)
or should I rush her to the emergency veterinary clinic?
 
Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
 
Holly,
Tigger (my sick baby) & Pooh
[Posted in FML issue 3493]