"Tickle tummy, tickle tummy!" - a fun game to play with young kits when
they start showing playful signs.  I tickle this baby's sweet tummy and her
little front legs grab for my fingers and her mouth is wide open as she
"mouths" my fingers.  A simple joy with kits and with this kit, much more
than a simple joy.  Because this is the baby who did not know she was
supposed to die.
 
Some weeks back I wrote a description of what 4 week old kits were like and
I think I mentioned that I had a single kit a few days old that I did not
expect to survive.  Single birth or single surviving kits rarely survive
unless their is another jill with a litter that can foster the baby.  One or
two kits are rarely able to stimulate mama enough by nursing to produce
milk; and mama almost always comes right back into season.  This is nature's
way.  Precious reproduction time is not wasted on one or two kits.  And the
newborn kit is virtually impossible to hand-raise.
 
The neonate kit is simply a small body with a perfectly crafted sucking
device for a mouth.  The mouth is very small.  The kit's mouth is shaped
like a funnel - the roof of the mouth is a channel and the tongue furls up
at sides, and the jaw muscles provide the ability to suction the nipple to
the back of the mouth to the throat.  The kit then swallows the milk.  Kits
do not develop the ability to transfer liquid or food from the front of the
mouth to the back until they are approximately 3 weeks old.  Mama's nipple
elongates from the suction and enlarges apace with the growing kit.
 
This baby's mother gave birth quite easily to six kits, cleaned them up and
then ignored them.  All seemed well, as I constantly fetched them from
corners of the nest and out from under her the first day or so.  Then I had
to be out of the house for most of a day and returned to find that she had
ignored her babies.  All were lost except for one who cried pitifully and
tenaciously kept trying to nurse from a mother that moved away from her.  I
gave the mama a very small dose of oxytocin to get a "let down" reflex so
the kit would get some milk.  I followed this procedure with tiny doses of
oxytocin twice a day for the next few weeks.  Oxytocin brings in milk, but
there is no information as to whether or not small repeated doses will cause
harm to the jill.  My guess is that it does not if used carefully - it has
been used in other animals and humans for many years.  (No flames on this
please, the mother is fine and although I don't know much, I doubt there are
many who know more about lactation than I do).
 
These tiny doses provided only enough to barely sustain life.  Meantime, the
hunt was on to find something that was small enough and the kit would accept
as a "foster" nursing device.  Nothing was found - and I had tried before as
well.  Several friends swung in to check with wildlife rescues and store
search.  Most in the catalogs I have tried, or already had -- the smallest
is too large for a newborn.  Most kits succumb in about 24 hours or so on
artificial feeding attempts.  I suspect most due to aspiration.  Patiently,
every two hours, in dread fear that this would happen, I carefully opened
the kit's mouth and gave baby a few drops of formula or STAT to the back of
the mouth.
 
Each day as she stubbornly clung to life, I did not know if I was glad or
sad for her because she was showing such a growth deficit.  So tiny.  Such a
will to live.  Her little cries brought tears to my eyes.  Her mama spent
most of her time trying to get away from her - standing up in the cage with
tiny baby hanging on to barely producing nipple.  A lava pack was kept in
the nest to help maintain her body temperature (Exclusively Ferrets - they
are wonderful).
 
Before I knew it, one week had passed, and then another, and then another
and she was still alive, but so tiny.  At three weeks we had a crisis.  She
became sick with diarrhea and I did not expect her to live more than a few
hours.  A friend who came over and saw her comforted me by saying that I had
at least kept her alive that long.  I added lactobacillus to her formula -
she was taking more now - and put her on a "drop" of Amoxi.  She survived
and the next morning was better.  Then she developed a severe prolapse of
the anus and vulva.  This is because the formula was hard for her immature
system to digest.  I soaked her little bum in warm water (I had been
cleaning her with warm water or witch hazel pads) and kept the prolapsed
tissue moist with neosporin ointment.
 
It seemed now that we were living from crisis to crisis.  Lady Lark's babies
were way too large to foster to; and Black Molly's babies were born weeks
after she was.  However, Rosie went postmature and delivered 7 stillborns -
one baby was quite necrotic and I suspect this formed toxins that did in the
rest of the babies.  I removed baby's mama and put Rosie with her.  I didn't
even try to stimulate Rosie's milk - but knew she would provide warmth and
caring for baby, as she did.  Another friend named her Bobette, but
superstitiously I did not want to name her.  However, soon she was being
called Bo-Be, short for Bobette.  Her mama was spayed.
 
Again time slipped by - she was, I estimated approximately three weeks
behind in normal development.  At 5 weeks she developed a serious bloat and
was in considerable pain.  I consulted with one of our vets and we reviewed
what I was giving her.  Chicken baby food from a spoon and her formula was
Esbilac Puppy Milk Replacer to which I added a small dollop of Fellovite 11,
STAT and Nutri-cal (I was making it up as I went along!).  Nutri-cal,
surprisingly, was thought to be the culprit because it contains fibre.  Not
much, but maybe too much for an immature digestive tract.  I had taken Bo-Be
off all food and was giving her Lactated Ringer's Sub-Q.  She was so small I
could only get 3 cc's in different locations under her skin.  Her vet said
to continue this and so I did for near 48 hours as her tummy gradually came
down.  She went back to her diet, sans nutri-cal.  She had perked up quite a
bit on the Ringers.  Her eyes opened and I feared she would be blind.  The
ferret's eyes continue to develop in the weeks after birth.  But she could
see!  I was so happy with that one victory.  She could see!
 
By now she was also climbing out of the nest box, crossing to the litter
box, and laboriously climbing in to use the facilities.  What a bright and
smart little girl!  So good.  This process took so long though that she
would often have her bowel movement while still trying to get in the litter
box.  I considered taking out the nest box and giving her just a sleep sack
and a much smaller and easier litter box to climb in.  I decided not to do
it.  The efforts she was making at climbing, I felt, was building body
strength.  So I let her struggle.  Now she fairly hops in!
 
As I write these words, Bo-Be is now nearing 8 weeks of age.  I no longer
get up every two hours during the night.  She still lags in development, but
now has a mush dish that she avidly consumes and I often see her chomping
away on a hard piece of food, although she still has her milk teeth.  She is
still tiny enough to fit in the palm of a hand, but growing every day.
Right now she is hanging over from the neck of my shirt and watching my
fingers on the computer keys -- she has climbed down twice to chase them.
 
All life is precious and this wee little ferret with the strong will to live
is testimony.  She no longer has a prolapse of her rectum, it corrected
itself about a week ago.  She is a black-eyed white and those eyes and that
sweet little face are to die for.  She has a sweet, gentle and trusting
nature.  I think she will remain a tiny ferret, but it doesn't matter - she
gives love and she is loved.  She taught me to never say again "It can't be
done" and she taught me that while there is life, there is hope.
 
Meg
[Posted in FML issue 2344]