Well to add to your stories of tiny babies in pet shops, I just had to jump
in and add mine.
 
I received a call Thursday night from Pet Quarters in Scarborough, Maine.
They are a ferret-friendly store and we do education days there quite
often.  One of the kits that had arrived two days before was lethargic and
not eating on her own.  They had taken her to the vets and the vet told
them to give her pedialyte and turkey baby food every 2 hours or so.  The
manager called me to ask if we would help out because the store would be
closed overnight and no one would be there to feed her.  I asked if she
wanted me to drive over (1 hour) and take her home for the night.  She said
"do you mind?".  Of course not-so Lydia and Kelly (shelter volunteers) and
I went for a drive to get this sick baby.
 
When we arrived, the manager took us out back and showed us this TINY baby.
She couldn't even hold her head up.  She had named her Noelle and she was
so young that her ear tattoos were still fresh with dried blood.  Her spay
line was visible with her fur shaved in that area.  She was the smallest
ferret I had ever seen in a pet shop.  We gave her some duck soup and she
took a bit of it and then we wrapped her up and headed home.  I fixed up a
nice warm cage, complete with heating pad and soft fleece snuggly blankets.
She had a tiny rattle when she breathed.  I fed her at 8:30, 10:00,
midnight, and 2 a.m.  I started her on a teensy drop of amoxi too.  She
kept vomiting up a foamy substance when she would eat.  (She would eat and
drink from the syringe, but then would vomit.) When I checked her for her
next feeding, she was dead.  I was shocked, and then mad!
 
Marshall Farms should be called on the carpet for this.  Their babies are
way too young to be shipped to pet shops.  Pet shops that then call on
SHELTERS to help them out.  I don't mind helping out, but there is
something wrong with this scenario.  I cried off and on most of Friday
about little Noelle.  She never had a chance.  She was so perfect, so tiny,
so fragile, and so soft.  I took pictures of her lying next to a ruler and
some close ups of her ear tattoos.  I couldn't get a good close up of her
spay lines.  I don't know what I'll do with those pictures, but I hope
somehow, some way, her death might save other ferret kits from the same
unfortunate death.
 
Happy holidays to all you ferret moms and dads out there.  Keep on doing
what you do best-loving your ferret kids.  Extra hugs and treats for all
ferrets this holiday season!
 
Stephanie
Ferret Services of Freedom
[Posted in FML issue 2904]