Hello all,
 
Well, we visited the pet store this weekend (very dangerous)
and fell in love with a new little baby ferret.
Weak willed as we appear to be, we brought him home
to add to the family.
 
The new addition is a little male white footed sable,
although only the toes are actually white, not the whole foot.
We named him "Balin" in keeping with the Hobbit dwarf
theme of our other two fuzzies, Fili and Kili.
 
We have two health questions concerning Balin:
 
(1) Sneezing:  the little guy will go off into a violent
fit of repeat body shaking sneezes, about five sneezes every
five minutes.  Some of the other ferrets in the pet store
seemed to have minor colds and runny noses.  Balin seemed
fairly healthy and wasn't sneezing until we brought him home.
He still doesn't have a runny nose, his appetite is fine, and
his bowel movements are fine.
Is this a cold?  does he have some weird allergies?
should we be doing anything?
 
(2) Balin seems to have a "distended anus".  It protrudes about
2mm,  certainly much more than the two females we have. Others in
the same batch also had a similar condition. When he uses the
litterpan, pieces of litter will stick into the anus.  We are
using coarse clay litter (non clumping of course) that neither
of the other two have had problems with.  When we clean this
litter off, there is sometimes a tiny amount of blood which we
thought might be caused by the sharp clay pieces.
Is the anal "shape" symptomatic of anything to be concerned with?
Is this a male thing?  (this is our first male ferret).
 
 
Anyway, Fili and Kili have adopted Balin without too much fuss.
Sometimes the play is a bit rough for the little guy but he
holds his own fairly well!   All the best to everyone and
their fuzzies.
 
Edward, Danielle and the terrible trio: Fili, Kili, and Baby Balin.
[Posted in FML issue 1098]