I only let my baby girls, Fanny and Sissy, roam around the house when
I am watching them... Other than that, they are in their cage so they
cannot get into trouble or get hurt.  This is an example of how they
can get hurt EVEN when you are watching them...
 
When they are out of their cage, they like to climb up on top of it and
look out the window... Then they climb down the side of their cage
backwards, just like we would climb down a ladder... Well, as Fanny was
climbing down, her fingernail on her front paw slid into a crevice in the
cage and got caught.  She still hasn't reached the floor at this point
and was hanging from her cage by 1 fingernail, crying... I held her in
the air to take the pressure off of the nail, but she must have been so
nervous that she was squirming so much, and I couldn't get the crevice in
the cage to open enough for her to get it loose... She ended up pulling
so hard that her nail ripped right out of her paw.  It actually looked
like the blood line (the part you have to make sure not to hit when
clipping their nails) was the only thing left on her little toe.  She
bled for a little bit and was very calm after that.  She stayed in my
arms for the longest time.
 
I called the emergency clinic (because it was a weekend) who told me to
just make sure the bleeding stopped and to all our vet in the morning, so
that is what I did.  When I took her to the vet to get checked, he said I
was lucky I took her.  He said the nerve and vessels were exposed and she
could have bumped it at any time and she would have bled to death, or it
could have swelled up so bad that they would have had to cut her toe or
foot off.  The vet had to do laser surgery and seal the vessels...
 
Fanny is doing great now... She only has 4 fingernails on her right foot
and she doesn't seem to be climbing normally yet, although it has only
been about a week or two.  Needless to say, I do not let them climb on
their cage anymore... If I see them going to climb it, I quickly grab
them and hold them up to the window myself for a look outside... Their
cage is an actual ferret cage.  So that goes to show you how freak
accidents can happen.
 
Tina and the good girls, Fanny and Sissy Marie
[Posted in FML issue 4005]