I am a lurker on this list and a ferret breeder.  I have a litter of ferrets
that are about 18 weeks old.  About every two weeks they all come out and
play in the tub and have a bath.  Last night was the same as every other
time.  The tub was filled to ferret elbow level and every one was playing
while some were getting scrubbed.  Everything was fine.  Rinsing began and I
drained the tub and handed the newly rinsed ferrets to my husband to dry.
We noticed that one of the little girls just layed there in the tub.  She
would look at me, but wouldn't lift her head.  I took her out and she felt
cold!  - even thou the water was warm and I never saw anybody with there
face in the water.  We dried her off and placed her on the floor to watch
her.  She wouldn't stand, just curl up and lie there.  She started to shake
and had problems breathing.  Her gums were turning blue and her tounge
seemed like it was stuck to the roof of her mouth.  Our regular vet is about
an hour away, but we have an emergancy clinic right down the road from our
house and I rushed her there.  They wisked her to the back and came out
several minutes later.  She was in Grand Mal seisure stage - just like we
were afraid of.  The vet told me they gave her some medication and were
doing some blood tests.  The results of that follow:
 
ALKP 177  IU
ALT   68  IU
BUN   20.8  MG/DL
CREA  00.0  MG/DL
GLU  296.9  MG/DL
TP     5.83  G/DL
 
I don't know what this means except for the glucose.  The vet told me that
she didn't think it was hypoglycemia.  Infact she told me she didn't know
what was the reason for the seisures.  She informed me that she had given
the ferret Volume.  This didn't seem right to me.  Why would you give a
downer to a ferret that was having seisures?  She wanted to do X-rays and
more tests, but I wanted to get my vet's opinion.  So I took her home.  She
was wrapped in a blanket with two hot water bottles.  By the time I got home
(3 mins later) she had blood and foamy fluids comming out of her nose and
mouth.  I knew she wouldn't make it to my vet's office.  I called him and he
said that he DID think it was hypoglycemia and when she started having the
seisures, all we needed to do is get her sugar level back up.  He told us
all we needed to do is rub nutracal on her gums or caro syrup.  He said that
she shouldn't have been given Volume at all.  He told me that her blood
sugar level was so high because of the seisures.  He said it was because she
got stressed out from the bath and then her body temperature probably was
brought down from the bath.  At this piont she could hardly breath.  She
sounded like she was trying to suck up the rest of liquid thru a straw in a
glass with ice.  She had bitten her tounge, but she shouldn't have still
been bleeding from that.  She died the minute I hung up with the vet.  We
took the body to our vet so he could do a necropsy on it.  I haven't gotten
the results back yet, but will post the results here.  If anybody can give
me with idea why she had seisures, why this vet gave her Volume, or any
other help I would apriciate it!
 
We are very concerned and confused by this.  We learn new things everyday
about ferrets and from ferrets.  I just feel so sad that that little girl
died because I didn't know what to do to help her.  Or because a vet - who
we tend to trust - didn't know what she was doing.
 
[PC]
[Posted in FML issue 2168]