It is with great sadness that I must tell you all that Joey, our 2 year old
sable male had to be euthanized this evening.  My daughter noticed earlier
today that he was not acting quite right when she opened the cage.  He just
laid there, made a little noise and then vomited.  She brought him to me
immediately.  Poor Joey just laid there, then tried to stand and run, all
the while with a frantic, frightened look in his eyes.  I paged June
urgently, and then rushed him to the vet.  The vet diagnosed him with a
probable middle ear infection, though he could not 100 percent be sure.
We brought Joey home with two antibiotics.  June practically held him
constantly until this evening when his breathing became more rapid and
labored and his mental status quickly deteriorated.  Joey could do nothing
more than drag himself in circles, then just collapse into an unresponsive
state.  Xrays pretty much ruled out middle ear involvement, therefore the
vet suspected some type of neurological process... Our vet gave Joey only a
10-15 percent chance of making a recovery, so our decision was to help him
be comfortable and not suffer any more.  Joey passed peacefully with June,
my daughter and me at his side.  Joey can now be with Phoebe at the Rainbow
bridge.  Afterwards, we brought Joey home to let his playmates say goodbye
one last time.  Oliver and Socks just sniffed, but Chandler and Humphrey
both just kind of curled up next to Joey and laid there.
 
This is so hard on us, what with Phoebe just recently passing away.
 
On a final note, has anyone ever heard of an acute neurological type
illness or process in a young, healthy ferret, excluding traumatic
injuries?
 
Louis (of June, Louis and the Zoo)
[Posted in FML issue 2979]