We picked up a little rescue jill yesterday and she was the sweetest little
ferret that we have ever, Ever, *EVER* seen (only partially because she is a
Marshall Farms ferret, I am sure).  However, upon giving her a close
inspection when we got her home, we discovered that she was terribly infested
with fleas.  We have never had a flea problem, so the only shampoo that we
have for use on our carpet sharks is either Ferret Glow, Outright Ferret
Shampoo or special coat conditioning shampoo (that has no deodorizing effect
past the first day) that we only use for competition.  None of these say that
they will kill fleas.  We confirmed this.
 
We felt so bad that we had to give this poor little girl such a long bath.
It took us a full hour to get rid of all of the fleas that were on her.  But,
as I said above, she didn't squirm (much :-) ), she didn't bite or act at all
like a wet ferret normally acts.  She even held still while we picked fleas
off around her eyes, with tweezers.  And, no, she is not otherwise sick.
Although, I am sure that she was probably not in the best condition, with
that many fleas biting her all the time.  We counted no less than fifty (50)
fleas either washed off, combed off or picked off of her body.
 
However, this morning, her coat is shiny and fluffy and from the best that I
can tell, free of fleas.  She seems more alert than she did when we got her.
But, she is still just as sweet as ever... maybe more so.  In fact, if the
people who said that they want her don't pick her up, we may decide to keep
her ourselves.
 
The question that All of this brings up is, "What kind of flea killing
shampoo can be used safely on ferrets?"
 
  [Before I got a chance to mail this, my vet returned my call and suggested
  Adams Shampoo for cats to kill the fleas ON the ferret.  I have never heard
  of it, but I guess that I will have to find it.  I want to make sure that
  Jenny (temporary name) is completely clear of fleas before we let her go.]
 
Next question, "What do you use on the carpet to kill fleas that is not toxic
to ferrets?"  Jenny was only in a back bedroom and bathroom, away from all of
the other carpet sharks in the living room.  But we don't want any escaped
fleas to get downstairs.  That bathroom is also where we normally give our
carpet sharks their baths, so we will be giving our little fuzzies their
baths downstairs until we are sure that there are no fleas upstairs.  We
bought a flea collar and put it in the vacuum cleaner bag and vacuumed the
whole upstairs and then disposed of the bag.  We plan to do the same
downstairs this evening.
 
  [When Dr. Jordan called a while ago, he suggested spraying permethrin and
  precor on and under everything fabric.  The precor kills the fleas in the
  eggs and permethrin kills the adult fleas.  He told me that I should keep
  the ferrets off of the carpet until it was dry and the fumes had
  dissapated.]
 
Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.
 
-----------------
"Cats may be cool, but carpet sharks rule!"
 
John Gaver ([log in to unmask])
 
[Posted in FML issue 0499]