Hi all, I hope your holidays are going well.  I have an older ferret who
I think is getting grumpy or senile or something.  She is 9 years old and
lately she has been ticking off the other ferrets.  She has always been
the queen of the kingdom (IE the only female of the group as well as the
alpha ferret) and a couple months ago we got another female.  She (the 9
year old) has adrenal and insulinoma and is still kicking ok on her meds.
She use to show the new kids she was the boss right from the get go by
draggin them around the room a couple times or reminding them by holding
them down and cleaning their ears.  Now that she is older she doesn't
have the strength the others do and thusly can't "show them" she is still
the boss.  Lately she will try to clean the other's ears or try to bite
them on the neck for a nice drag but just can't hang on any more and it's
ticking the others off to the point of them beating her up once in a
while.
 
She sleeps a lot more then the kids do and sometimes they will run right
over her in whatever snuggle she is sleeping in and she will get mad and
try to grab them or she will drag the snuggle into one of the wooden
cubbies or even climb this little cat scratch cylinder they have in their
room to escape them.  I've tried to switch out the times they are all
out.  For example, the kids are out for a few hours while she is in her
cage then they are in their cage for a few ours while she is out.  She
HATES this.  She will not lay down in the cage and go to sleep.  She
will pace, mess up the bedding or the litter box etc.
 
Another thing she is doing is running around the room for no apparent
reason.  She isn't looking for a toy or going to go eat, she just runs
the perimeter of the room.  When I see her doing this I go in and pick
her up in one of thier blankets and hold her on my lap until she goes
to sleep, which she does pretty fast once I'm holding her.  The only
thing I can think of is that she has arthritis and her joints feel better
when she is moving around or when she is being held and is warm or she is
just losing it.
 
Any thoughts?
 
Thanks,
Laura
[Posted in FML issue 4348]