Hello all,
 
Something disturbing happened to me yesterday, and I am at a loss.  A couple
of weeks ago two sweet little girls came into my shelter, Brittany and
Shant`ee.  Both are between 2 to 3 yrs old.  Shant`ee had the beginning
symptoms of an adrenal tumor, which I promptly had operated on.  Brittany
seemed to be in perfect health, other than vomiting a couple of times her
second day here, which we attributed to stress, since it only happened that
day.  Saturday afternoon, I let them out to run for a couple of hours before
I left for an overnight job function.  They both seemed fine.  Sunday
afternoon I came back, and as I was checking on everyone, I found Brittany
dead in her cage.  I can find no explainable reason for this.  I took her in
first thing this morning as soon as the vet clinic opened for an autopsy.
My regular vet was out of town, so another vet did the autopsy.  He could
find no explainable reason for her death.  He said everything looked fine,
lungs clear, heart fine, stomach and intestines clear, no blockages, her
liver was a little fatty, and she did have a trace amount of blood in her
bowels, but nothing to explain why she would go from happy and health to
gone in the space of 24hrs.  There was no evidence of any accident in her
cage, she was laying on the cool metal bottom underneath the blanket as if
she had been sleeping.  Her eyes were closed, and there was evidence of a
liquid trail leading from her mouth about 4 inches long yellow in color.
The vet suggested a possible aneurism, and said he would try to check her
cranial cavity for one, but he has not yet called me back, and although I
know this is possible, it is also very unlikely.  Judging from the way he
was talking about her, I don't think he has a lot of hands on experience
with ferrets, he is brand new to the clinic, and my backup vet was
unavailable.  She was supposed to be adopted out tonight, and I am
devastated.  I just wish I knew what happened.  Shant`ee seems to be okay,
but I am going to keep her under close observation for the next few days to
make sure she doesn't become depressed.
 
If anyone has any idea as to what might have happened, I would very much
appreciate it if you would e-mail me.  The vet said that pathology would
probably not turn up much, since it was so long between the time she died
and when he did his autopsy.  (Although I put her in the refrigerator right
after I found her.)
 
Thank you,
Shelley Knudsen
Legion of Superferrets of Nebraska Ferret Shelter
[log in to unmask]   http://www.tcgcs.com/~ferrets
402-463-0190
[Posted in FML issue 2271]