Here is something for the ferret books.  Jet, a beautiful little girl from
Meg of the East Coast, is lying in an incubator, fighting for her life.  I
give her one chance in four to live.
 
About 9 months old, Jet was by *all* appearances and visual tests a healthy
bouncing little girl.  She loves climbing my legs, and riding high on the
shoulder.  She comes running at top speed when I call her name.  Three days
ago, I noticed she was not running around much.  I checked her out, and she
seems just a little pale, but everything looked otherwize fine.  Two days
ago, I recognized a drastic behavior change, and that her gums and ears were
very pale.  Fearing she was bleeding, maybe even a blockage, I rushed her to
the vet.  Her bowel was empty, xrays negative.  She was scheduled for
spaying in two weeks, so on the chance that her bone-marrow was estrogen
depressed, we went ahead and spayed her yesterday, carefully inspecting all
her other stuff just to make sure.  Everything looked fine, the ovaries
looked like they might have been the problem.
 
If so, this is the first time *I* have ever heard of a "silent heat;" that
is a ferret being in heat before her first birthday, no swollen vulva, no
smell or reaction from a closely-associated unneutered male hobb, no
external signs at all.  I mean none, and I've been checking daily.  Yet she
was severely anemic, and, while the ovaries tests won't be back for a while
yet, from all indications, she has been in heat for some time.
 
The surgery was touch and go.  Carbone and Chrys were on hand in case a
transfusion was needed.  In the late evening, she came home.  She was weak,
but she could walk, passed a little poop (about an inch of formed dark brown
stool with small possibly black flecks), ate some baby chicken mixed with
pedilyte, and drank some straight pedilyte.  She was not dehydrated at all.
I decided to stay up all night with her, and she was doing fine, mostly
sleeping, lay on my lap a while, but quiet like you would expect her to be
just after surgery.  Until 4:45 am.
 
I noticed her breathing was sort of strange sounding, so I picked her up and
immediately noticed she was completely unresponsive to any stimuli, labored
breathing, very rapid hear rate.  She didn't respond to karo syrup, didn't
respond to tactile or pain stimuli.  I rushed her to the vet (after getting
him out of bed) and gave her oxygen via a mask.  A half hour later, she was
responding to stimuli, and into a O2 filled incubator she went.  By 7am she
was alert but weak.  By 9am, they were starting to decrease the O2 down
toward room levels to see if they could wean her off.  We are still deciding
if she should be transfused or if the stress at the moment might be too much
for her.  In any case, she is in the equivient of a pet ICU right now, and
Carbone, Chrys, Moose and Trillian are standing by to donate blood shold it
be pudent to do so.
 
I'm not sharing this for sympathy or for people to say I did my best if it
doesn't work out.  I've looked through all the medical references and
checked out all the search engines (Medline, Biological Abstracts, etc.) and
could find not a single thing indicating ferrets could have a "silent heat."
This isn't being caused by a tumor; as far as we can tell Jet was in heat
long enough to depress her blood count and make her seriously anemic.  I'm
posting this to warn others of a rare but possible dangerous problem, and,
frankly, to see if anyone else has ever heard of this type of thing in
ferrets; (I know it happens to dogs and cats on occasion).
 
One other thing.  I absolutely know what the signs of a ferret being in heat
look like and I did not miss them.  Jezabell (about 2 months older than Jet)
and Amber (about Jet's age) are not in heat, nor do they display any sign of
trouble.  Both will be spayed in two weeks.  Jet hasn't lost any hair, she
hasn't acted like she is in heat, no sollen vulva, no drainage, no nesting,
no swollen nipples, to weight loss/gain, nothing.  The only symptoms were of
the anemia, nothing more, and it seemed to be quite sudden, acute case.
 
In any case, if you have a minute or two, think of Jet.
 
Bob C and the other 19 worried Carpet Sharks.
[Posted in FML issue 2238]