Recently I've seen several posts asking questions about why their ferrets
seem to have a wobbly gait or are weak in their rear ends...having just
gone through a scare in the past couple of days I thought I might pass
along the following info.  Bill and I are babysitting my "ferret-in-law"
Ferret Fawcett for Bill's dad and in just a couple of days she became
even skinnier then when she arrived even to the point of refusing to eat
and she was walking like she was drunk.  After taking her to see Dr.
Kawasaki we found she had ulcers (which explained some of the problem)
but she still wouldn't eat unless force fed food and water.  Her blood
tests came back showing potential pancreatic (SP) tumors which would
explain some more of the symptons.  She was almost willing herself to die
she was so weak and lethargic.  She went into emergency surgery Friday
night and we kept our fingers crossed for the best.  Surviving the
surgery was major hurdle and this morning we got the best news that she
had survived the night.  She's still not out of the woods since Dr. K
also found she had a swollen lymph node and an infection in her lungs but
she seems to want to hang on.  I should point out that my father-in-law's
vet back in his home town had said her problem was that she was sucreting
the hormones associated with being in season although she was long ago
fixed.  (This is a five year old Marshall Farm ferret).
 
Dr. K told us that one of the first symptons of the tumors of the
pancreas is the wobbly and weak gait and the lethargy along with the low
glucose level.  If you notice your ferret being a little weak in the rear
end it might be worth getting checked out.  We found out in a phone call
to Bill's dad that he had noticed this before in his ferret but his vet
has not thought it important (his vet also believes that ferrets normally
live well into their teens).
 
Well, back to putting together cages, we're doing some rearranging here
to accomodate some possible mothers to be and I guess I've stalled long
enough.
 
diane & bill
zen & the art of ferrets
 
[Posted in FML issue 0773]