Something is wrong with Cassie.  Could just be a cold or the flu, I guess.
She's never been sick before so it's hard for me to know.  She has been very
lethargic for the past couple of days; sleeps almost all the time, trembles
more than usual, seems to breathe quickly when asleep (about two breaths per
second when I checked her this morning).  She's a little unsteady when
walking, and hasn't been running or playing at all.  She won't even play
with her teddy bear, her favorite toy in the world.  This morning I put her
in my shirt while I got ready for work, and aside from trembling for the
first 15 minutes or so she remained mostly still, even when I was walking
around to different rooms, something which would normally cause her to crawl
out to see what's going on.
 
I gave her some laxative last night in case of a blockage and took her in
the bedroom overnight to monitor her.  She ate and pooped three times since
then, all looking normal.  Strangely, I also gave Sammy some laxative last
night for good measure, and he has hardly pooped at all since then, except a
few little brown puddles.  He is behaving completely normally, so I had no
reason to suspect that *he* has a blockage.  He was playing and eating with
his usual gusto this morning.  Anyway, I'm bringing Cassie in to the vet at
3 this afternoon; if Sammy still hasn't had a normal poop by then I'll bring
him in too.
 
For a little more background, Cassie is 4 years old, and other than a bowel
inflammation and a little blood in her stool at 7 weeks age (lasting only a
few days), and irritation of her urinary tract due to insufficiently acidic
urine when I tried a new food brand earlier this year, and one more recent
vet visit which I will cover later, she has never had any health problems.
 
About the recent vet visit: I brought Sammy in for his annual check-up and
shots last Friday.  At the same time I brought Cassie in because of a tiny
bump on her right shoulder (about 1 millimeter, or 1/25th of an inch in
size), and also because she has dry foot pads.  I first noticed the bump
around the beginning of the month because there was a little blood crusted
on it.  I cleaned it up and it hasn't bled since.  The vet said it didn't
look like cancer, and was too small to take a tissue sample without removing
it entirely anyway, so I should just keep an eye on it for now and let him
know of any change.  For the dry foot pads, he suggested giving Cassie
vegetable oil or Linatone daily, which I have been doing; about 1/2 teaspoon
of canola oil and a few drops of Linatone for flavor.  The canola oil is
probably about a year old, but has no expiration date.  Can it have gone
bad?  It seems ok to me.  Sammy has also been getting some and he's fine.
 
One more thing: it was a hot day when I brought Sammy and Cassie to the vet,
so I set up a false bottom in their carrier and placed two cooler packs
wrapped in a towel underneath.  The false floor felt pretty cold after a
while, so I put a small ferret blanket on top of that.  I wonder if that
provided too much insulation and the carrier got too hot.  When I got the
ferrets home Cassie crawled out and lay flat on the floor, and remained
sluggish for a few minutes.  I thought maybe she had gotten too hot, but the
carrier didn't seem overly warm, and Sammy was fine.  The odd thing though
was that the fur on her head was all damp.  There was nothing damp in the
carrier, so I assume Sammy must have licked or chewed on her head, perhaps
out of frustration for his confinement.  He does tend to get destructive
when frustrated, and it wouldn't be the first time he got too rough with
Cassie, though I didn't hear her squealing on the ride home, which she
always does if Sammy even plays a little rough.  Then again, the car windows
were rolled down so I may not have been able to hear her.  Anyway, Cassie
perked up again after a little while and was fine over the weekend.  I don't
know if her behavior then was related to her illness now.
 
Oh, one more thing comes to mind, I handled a couple of ferrets in a pet
store around the middle of last week.  They both seemed healthy, but I guess
it's possible I could have picked up a bug and passed it to Cassie.
 
Anyway, that's about all the info I can think of on her condition and recent
events.  Although I'll have her at the vet this afternoon, before anyone
gets to read this message, I'd still appreciate any suggestions anyone has
as to what's going on with her and what I should do.  I'm very worried about
my little girl, especially after losing Bud in December.
 
Sorry this post ran so long. Bye for now.
 
--
John Rosloot, Caregiver to Cassidy and Sammy
With loving memories of my dear departed Buddy
Technical analyst, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~john/ferrets.html
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1662]