We thought we had this new ferret introduction thing down pretty well.  We'd
done it before, successfully, with five ferrets at different times.  Now,
however, we have a problem.  My cinnamon baby Cognac is almost a year old
and still not integrated with the others.  She is small but feisty, but when
we try to introduce her to the other ferrets the big males attack her.  The
last time we did this, she got attacked twice in short succession by two
different guys and ended up going to the animal emergency hospital in the
middle of the night with seizures!  All of our ferrets have been fixed, and
not all of them will attack her.
 
We are really at a loss as to what to try next.  We are planning to drive to
Oregon from St. Louis this summer, and it would be much easier if we only
had one cage in the car.
 
Also, Cognac still has occasional seizures.  We are concerned that she may
have suffered permanent brain damage.  She is very sweet, gives me lots of
kisses, seems to eat and drink normally, is still feisty and bounces around,
but does not war dance anymore.  She has not lost any weight.  The other
thing that concerns me is that she is very slow about growing back her hair
from when she was fixed.  The surgery was in November, and she still doesn't
have all of her hair back.  Probably 90%.  We had a tough time stopping the
bleeding after the surgery, but she seems to have bounced back from that.
Maybe she is just a fragile ferret and we'll have to live with that.  By the
way, I got her as a kit from Debbie Scott of Friendly Ferrets in Ohio.  I
would not trade Cognac for anything, but I would not buy another ferret from
Debbie Scott.  Just my opinion - I may be totally wrong on this.
 
Any advice would be appreciated - our vet is very receptive to suggestions.
 
Sara and Kurt
Cognac - why are they persecuting me
and the other 8 ferrets
and Winter the dog
[Posted in FML issue 1876]