Hi everyone
     I'm new to the FML and to ferret life.  I have two four month old
sprites (at least I think that's what an altered female is called) named
Maggie May and Gatsby.  Yesterday I noticed Maggie walking strangely on her
hind legs, and she was not nearly as ready to romp and play as usual.  When
we watched her more closely, we noticed that she was favoring her back left
leg.  When the leg was touched, she didn't cry, and when it was playtime,
she kept up with Gatsby, although she did take a few 5 second rests to sit
down and "take a load off".  Instead of sleeping on the third floor of her
cage, she has taken to sleeping in the "basement" (litter box level) on a
towel and some "Care Fresh" bedding.  Gatsby, bless her little heart, will
not sleep in the hammock alone and has taken her place alongside (or should
I say on top of:}) Maggie on the first floor.  I have been reading the
Ferret and Disease FAQs, and I know that a symptom of some of those
diseases is hind end paralysis.  Is it terribly common for such young kits
to have diseases like those mentioned in the FAQ's?  Her eating, drinking,
and pooping have all been normal.  At any rate, Miss Maggie has an
appointment on Friday evening, and it will not come soon enough for me.
Seeing her like this makes me feel guilty for the times I scolded her for
biting me- I'd give anything for a super deluxe Maggie bite right now,
broken skin and all :( !  I thought that she could have caught her foot in
the wire of her cage, so I have put toweling down on the second and third
floors (although the third was pretty much covered by their "sleep sack").
I have been planning to cover the cage floor, but I hadn't gotten any ideas
how to go about it until I started reading the FML.  Guess I should have
done it sooner.  Anyone with experience in a similar situation-I'd
appreciate any advice.
 
     To Heike, the concerned mommy with the sick babies: Do you have, or
have you and/or your ferrets been in a place that have, reptiles?  Even if
the fuzzies did not come into contact with the reptile, if they played in
an area where the reptile had been bathed, their enclosure washed, or their
food utensils washed, there is a possibility that Fender and Bianca could
have been exposed.  If they have been near a reptile, have the animal
checked for it ASAP.  Salmonella is curable in reptiles as well as fuzzies.
I don't mean to seem as if I am automatically blaming a reptile ( I have
three iguanas myself, and love them just as much as Maggie and Gatsby), but
the fact is that reptiles have been known to pass the virus on to other
creatures, and it is just as unhealthy for a reptile to have Salmonella as
it is for other animals.  As long as proper disinfection methods are taken,
there should be no problem.  Sorry to get off the subject of fuzzies, but I
thought that it was important that it be said.
 
     To add my part to the "feel good" portion of the FML, I thought I
would share something that my baby Gatsby does.  I'm sure everyone has seen
their fuzzy do this one time or another, but you know how special and cute
everything your fuzzy does is when you are a new owner.  Gatsby has a
special way of drinking her water.  Instead of standing up at the water
bottle, she lays down underneath it and drinks.  Kind of like those drunk
scenes in movies where you see someone under the wine cask (beer keg) with
their mouth under the spigot drinking away.  The only time she doesn't
drink this way is when she is playing and then it's three quick licks and
she's gone.
 
     To the person who posted about the Rubbermaid drawer organizers as
litter boxes, I use those too.  The girls wouldn't go anywhere but this
tiny corner at the bottom on the first floor ramp.  We tried towels in the
corner, food in the corner, the whole shebang, but when we finally put one
of the long boxes in the corner, tied it on with twist ties, it worked like
a charm.  Maggie was so upset, she couldn't get to that corner of the cage
pan to poop.  You could just see it in her eyes, like that old cartoon
character, Dick Dastardly.. .."Drats, foiled again!"  She tries to move it,
but thankfully, it hasn't given yet.
 
             Sorry to have posted such a long note.  Everyone keep
the people (and animals) down South in Florida in their good thoughts
and prayers.
 
 
Laura and Scott
Maggie --"You had better slow down, else I'm gonna bite your ear. Hard."
Gatsby -- "Make some room, Maggie. You're hogging the Care Fresh. Boy,
   is this stuff fun to play in or what?"
[Posted in FML issue 1274]