Our little jill, Nenya, apparently swallowed a small piece of latex torn off
of a squeaky toy, on Monday morning.  We always monitor our carpet shark's
while playing with squeaky toys and check the condition of the toys, both
before and after play.  Nenya, however, managed to rip about a 3/8" by 1/4"
piece of latex off of a brand new toy.  We checked the area thoroughly and
could not find the missing piece.
 
We were in Dallas at the time and preparing to head home to Houston, so we
did not have an extra cage to separate her in.  However, at our hourly water
stops, we did observe each of the other girls using the bathroom at more than
three hours (digestive period) later.  So when we got home, we immediately
separated Nenya and watched her litter box.  We fed her some Ferretone and
Nutrical.  After 3-1/2 hours, her litter box was still clean and a count of
pieces of food in her dish revealed that she had not eaten a single bite.
 
This pretty much cinched it.  So, we gave her a Ferretone (25%) and Mineral
Oil (75%) mixture and waited again (we did not have any Laxitone on hand).
Within 2-1/2 hours, she had a runny movement.  We took her out and played
with her, to help her digestion, and she had another movement that was about
the same.  More Nutrical, more Ferretone/Mineral Oil and more waiting.  Her
poop got better, but no latex appeared.
 
Dr. Jordan gave her an x-ray on Tuesday morning and could not see anything,
so he gave her some barium and tried again two hours later... still nothing.
Her poop has improved, but the only way I can entice her to eat is to put
Nutrical on each piece of food, or moisten her food with clam juice.  We
still have not found the piece of latex.  She is still isolated and we are
still waiting for her to return to normal habits.  Dr. Jordan said that she
may be slow in returning to normal eating habits, as her digestive track may
still be a little inflamed or irritated.
 
I just returned from checking her out at lunch.  She has eaten a total of 60
pieces of SD kitten food since 8:00am.  I let her out to play with Sushi (the
pretender to the throne) and Sushi gave her a workout.  But, Nenya (the
smaller) won though.  I guess that means that Nenya is not doing _too_
terribly bad.  I added a teaspoon full of clam juice to her food and she was
eating again when I left the house.
 
We normally throw away any toys that look weakened by teeth marks.  This
particular toy was only about two or three days old and showed no signs of
damage before Nenya started attacking it.  I cannot imagine how she did so
much in such a short period of time, as these particular toys will normally
last for a couple of weeks of occasional use.  Never under-estimate the
ability of a ferret.
 
-----------------
"Cats may be cool, but carpet sharks rule!"
 
John Gaver ([log in to unmask])
 
[Posted in FML issue 0513]