This is concerning the sick ferret from Janet and Frisky and hopefully
will help others,
 
    I had a dear little ferret for a little over a year when she
began to look sick and stopped eating.  She was so happy usually and she
even grew very dear to my mom, who is from the farms in North Dakota and
never ever thought she would be a grandma to a ferret, but Tish weaved
her way into many hearts.
    We took her to the vet and ended up giving her antibiotics for a week or
so, which did not help so we went back.  They gave us some different
antibiotics to try.  Well, this did not help either after we tried it for
another week and a half or so.  We were also feeding her baby food and
Nutrical for nutrition.
 
    About a month went by of screwing around trying all these different
meications, running back to the vet every week and basically, force feeding
her.  She even
had x-rays a week or two into this sickness period which showed nothing was
stuck in her system.  The vet could see that her intestinal tract
was deteriorating and since we didn't see a foreign object in her
body, she thought it was something to do with her illeus (I think
that is right, it has to do with her intestines).  We
did not know what else to do so we went ahead with exploratory surgery
anyway.
 
    It turns out that she had a sponge stuck in her intestines.  It did
not show up on the x-ray because it was foam.  The x-ray did not pick it
up.At first, we thought that she had gotten through the doors downstairs into
the kids' play basket of toys, but months later, we turned over a lazy boy
type of chair to find bits of chewed foam.  I matched exactly what was taken
out of her body.
 
    The last I saw her alive was when she went into surgery.  She went
through it fine, woke up, was eating, went back to sleep, and never woke
up again.  The vet was keeping her at her house so she could monitor
Tish, but she died during the night.  She said that her body was just too
deteriorated to physically recover.  What really makes me so mad is that
when it was all over the vet said,  "I should have known to operate right
away."  I don't think I will ever let that go.  I really miss my little girl.
 
    I have never ferret proofed a house like I do now.  I was careful
before, but now even more so.  I jump every time I hear Rocky get into a
box or into another room.  If anything like this ever happens again, I am
going to go about it differently with the first sign that something is
wrong.  I had no idea to think of the furniture being
hazardous that way.  Now all my furniture is extremely securely tacked
down or it is not going to be in my house.
 
    Tish gave the vet a little different perspective on sick ferrets and
the only good I can get from her passing on is that she is no longer in
pain and she was an example for other ferrets who may exhibit similar signs.
 
    I really hope this helped you or someone else.  Sorry I wrote so
much, but if it helps, it's worth it.
 
Diane
Rocky
Tippy and Taz
and most of all Tish, who I will hopefully someday see again.
[Posted in FML issue 1128]