First, let me say thank you so much to everyone who contacted me with
advice and encouragement and all the prayers and positive thoughts
sent my way. I have just gotten home from the vet. She called me back
shortly after I had posted, stating that while she did not believe my
ferret was adrenal, she would like to see both ferrets and do blood
work. I had to leave them at the vet's while I was at work, but they
called me very soon after I left with the blood test results. He is not
adrenal! I am so happy. He did, however, have some blood in his stool
and they are testing his feces for a parasite and I am starting him on
amoxycillin for the next 2 weeks. Fun stuff. But better news than being
adrenal. She believes that it is a comfort or dominance issue and has
advised me to separate them. So I'm now deciding between getting a
second cage or getting that dream cage of mine. But, I'm sad about
having to separate the boys because my group really is bonded as a
whole group, not into to pairs. Yes, there are strong ties between
the older male female pair, but not to the point where they exclude
the other two. She basically said that until the victim stands up for
himself, the chewer won't stop the chewing, so obviously I need to
continue to intervene and provide the victim with a safe haven.

Oh, and since they were going to the vet, I had taken the two boys out
this morning for a walk to try to dull their freshly-trimmed claws so
they wouldn't scratch the vet or the techs as badly as newly-cut claws
tend to do, so I'm thinking my older boy snuck something tasty-looking
off the ground which caused the intestinal bleeding, but we will see...

Thank you again everybody!

~Jennie

[Posted in FML 5882]