Hi there!
I appreciate all the responses I got when I asked about Charlie and getting
another ferret!  I did, by the way get another male, his name is Mordecai.  He's
great.  He just went in for his shots on Monday and the vet said he looked great
and healthy.  I have been having awful problems with Charlie!  The past two
weeks have been horrible for him.  I took him in on Monday because over the
weekend he stopped eating and started having severe diarrhea.  He was fine on
Friday - very playful and energetic. On Saturday he started drinking less and
eating less, and by Sunday he wasn't eating at all.  When I took him in first
thing on Monday, the vet said that he needed to be hospitalized - he was
dehydrated.  They checked his feces for parasites and it came out negative.
They took x-rays and found that everything looked normal - spleen, liver,
kidneys...  And they also took a blood sample.  His sugar, white and red blood
cell count were normal, but his electrolytes and protein were very very low.
She said that she suspected he might have an ulcer and that usually ulcers in
ferrets are from some type of bacteria (helicobacter?).  She said that this has
been seen in ferrets as young as five weeks and that stress will make them more
prone to them because it lowers their immunity.  Charlie is only 16weeks old.
It is breaking my heart to have to see him go through all of this.  He was in
two weeks ago for a broken leg and he had to have surgery by an orthopedic
surgeon and had to have a plate put on the break in the femur!  Have any of you
had any experience with these types of ulcers?  (I asked her if she was sure
that this was an ulcer and she said it was a high probability-she said that to
be sure she would have to go in with a little scope, but at this point in time
she didn't want to cause him any more discomfort)  Are these recurring?  I
looked at the Medical FAQ but didn't see anything on this.  If anyone has had
any experience with this please let me know!
Thanks,
Charlie, Mordecai, Deborah and Mike
 
[Posted in FML issue 0915]