Hi fellow ferreters:
 
I have not posted in about 9 months or longer, but during my absence(sp?) I
hadve lost one of my babies.
 
A week before x-mas my SO bought me a new baby ferret, to add to my seven
already.  (exactly what I needed!  haha :) ) My new little Shamus was kept
seperate from the others in a smaller cage, but I introduced then for a
short while each day.  All of a sudden green poops started to appear from
about 5 of the 7 and the baby was totally healthy.  A couple of days later
all the ferrets started having normal poops and one kept having green
diarhea, my little Dakota.  This poor thing kept getting worse.  I took her
to a vet who didn't know too much about ferts.  He did a fecal test and said
everything was all right.  He gave my some antibiotics, but she continued to
worsen.  He poops had been black for 2 days and she stopped eating.  I was
force feeding her.  The saddest thing is that she started to drag her body
around because she couldn't walk any longer and she would push herself to
say hello when mommy walked by her cage.  (I kept her seperate from her fert
friend as soon as I realized how bad she was)  Needless to say I brought her
to another vet and they said she would not make it through the night.  She
did but she wouldn't absorbe any liquids form her IV so I had to put her to
sleep.  (Hardest descision I ever had to make) My little Dakota ( a sweet
doll face, fuzzy kissy face) is now on the other side of the rainbow bridge
waiting for mom to throw her a raisen.
 
Does anyone know if this was the dreaded ECE???  I told all the vets I took
her too about the disease from reading about it here.  But they never heard
of it.  They said I had to take her to some specialist in New York City (I
live about 35 minutes outside) But I tried to nurse her back, she was
already half dead when they told me.  This is the most horrible disease- It
is like cancer, slow and painful, but my Dakota was always sweet, never bit
me cause of her pain and went out of her way to be petted during her illness.
 
Please I beg you, be very careful bringing a new ferret friend home.  I have
7 so I know how difficult ferret math can be, just be very careful.  I am
now one ferret-less :(
 
Bye from the carpet sharks & their mama too
Baby, Zoe, Wiley (SUPERGENIUS), Samson, Delilah, Bonkers & Shamus
                       DOOK< DOOK< DOOK
[Posted in FML issue 1891]