I have been a devoted reader of the FML for more than 2 years and want to
thank all of the people who contribute to it, especially Bill Gruber.  When
I joined, my wife and I had 1 ferret.  We now have 4 and are trying to
convince ourselves that 4 is enough.
 
Our 2 year old ferret Snowflake recently developed an intestinal infection.
He started out by vomiting 5 times and having several diarrhea stools
during the night.  Although we had 3 other ferrets in the cage, Snowflake
seemed to be the only "droopy" one.  We then isolate Snowflake in a
separate cage and watched him closely.  When we observed that it was him
that was sick, we debated taking him to the vet.  We decided to take him
because ferrets seem to have very little reserve of health and can become
very sick very quickly.
 
When we took him to the vet Snowflake fortunately only had a bacterial
intestinal infection, and was slightly dehydrated.  With antibiotics and
water flavored with juice (to encourage him to drink lots) he improved
rapidly over the next 12 hours and was fine the next day.
 
For those of you who are new ferret owners, I would highly recommend that
if your ferret looks at all sick, don't wait, go ahead and take them to
the vet.  Ferrets get sick quickly and they can't tell you what's wrong.
As far as the vet expense, it will be much LESS if you take your baby in
before they get dehydrated or seriously infected and require IVs, etc.
 
Even after watching four ferrets over the past 3 years, my wife and I
sometimes have difficulty determining if one of our ferrets is sick-so
please play it safe.
 
Stephen and Sharon Cox
Snowflake, Simon, Sabrina, and Scooter
 
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[Posted in FML issue 2422]