i sent the following message to another vet who specializes in ferrets
but i am looking for as much advice as possible and would appriciate any
information given to my by anyone with a greater knowlegde of ferrets.
however i forgot to mention in the following letter that boingo also has
a low body temperature... i have placed a hotwater bottle (wrapped in a
towel so as not to burn him) in the cage with him and he's taken to
sleeping beside it.
 
thank you for your time.... you can email me at [log in to unmask]
 
i have some questions for you about my ferret, who is extremly sick.
boingo is 2 1/2 years old, and was doing great for a long time.  a few
months ago however my *EX* roommate decided to kick boingo across the
room head first into the steel leg on my dinner table.  he seemed fine up
untill a few weeks later when he lost the hair on the tip of his tail.
it has grown back and i have seen no other real hair loss, other than
shedding during baths.  about 4 weeks ago i got a baby ferret, her name
is anri (and it definately suits her well).  anri is in perfect health,
yet, boingo is not so good.  he has extreme dehydration and runny poo,
and i took him to the vet the other day who wanted to do blood work and
xrays and put him on an iv for 24 hours.
 
the sum of all those things came up to $500.00 which i could not afford.
funny how if my ferret were human they could not turn him away just
becasue i didnt have the money right then.  i also do not have any credit
and so they could not arrange to have me billed.  the doctor gave me
amoxicillin, a/d prescription diet canned food, and nutrical.  he also
told me to get him some pedialyte.  for the past 36 hours, i have had him
on the following
 
scheduale:
 
7 am
0.2 cc amoxicillin
1 cc nutrical
4 ml a/d
2 ml pedialyte
 
11 am
ad
pedialyte, same dosages
 
1pm
nutrical
 
3 pm
ad
pedialyte
 
7 pm
cycle starts all over again
 
since the cycle of feeding has begun, he has apparend to have gained *a
little* weight.  he seems more eager to become his old self, wanting to
walk around more when i take him out to feed/medicated him.  however!!
his poo has started to become a greenish slimey goo looking substance.
my questions are is this normal, is it a good sign/bad sign?  the
scheduale i have him on, in your opinion, do you think it will be
effective?  also, should i seperate the baby ferret from him, or, because
he is already sick, will he build up immunities to whatever it is she has
as he fights off whatever it is he has now?  they are both marshall
ferrets, i received papers with anri stating she was clean of disease,
but, boingo has become sick since i got her, so i dont know if that's
true, or what i should/could do about it.  any advice you had would be
greatly appriciated, and i thank you in advance for your time in
responding.
 
thank you,
 
-alora
[Posted in FML issue 3586]