I posted a couple of weeks ago about covering the underneath of our couch
with cardboard to keep our fuzzies out of the couch and someone was gracious
enough to answer me and explain that they would get in anyway cos' they'd
tried it already.  We were only waiting until paycheck time (3 days away) so
we could buy some flooring vinyl to replace the cardboard with and they
fuzzies clawed and tore a hole in the card board and managed to get back
into their favorite sleeping place.  OK, I thought enjoy it now because in a
couple of days it will be history.  Well, that night my husband decided to
stay up late (very rare for him) and watch some late scary movies and about
2:00am he heard a ferret scratching at the cardboard inside the couch (the
ferrets run free when we are up) but Bear wouldn't come out of the little
hole they had made and so my husband tore the cardboard off the bottom to
see why Bear wouldn't come out.  My husband woke me up screaming for me to
come help him.  Bear (our use to be biggest ferret) had gotten caught in the
couch and had punctured himself with the thick coil wire.  It went in and
back out about 1 1/4 inches apart in his lower abdomen.  I held the couch
while my husband slipped him off the wire (bless his heart he didn't even
try to bite and I know that had to hurt!)
 
Quick trip to my vet for emergency treatment - fortunately it was just under
the skin and didn't damage anything except to put holes in his skin, and it
was a flat end on the wire, not sharp - (still can't figure out how he
managed to do that!) I was worried because of where it went in, right below
his, well as my kids would say when they were much younger, pee pee.  I was
afraid it might have severed it, but my vet said not.  He's doing well and
almost healed now.  We had the vet give him a tetanus shot and she put him
on antibiotics to make sure no infection, she checked for blood in the urine
etc, but gratefully he's fine.
 
Moral, couches have springs, staples or nails and other things that can
cause serious injury to our furry friends and we need to make sure it is
inaccessible to them.  We have put boards around the bottom of the couch so
they can't even get under it anymore.  Was funny to watch them at first go
under the skirt that is at the bottom of the couch only to discover that it
was like the wall, a dead end, but they carefully checked out every inch
around it looking for the open place that had to be there so they could get
into their sleeping place.  One less worry, thank goodness, but a close
call.  But Bear has always been my "if anything weird can happen, it will
happen to me" ferret.
 
Vicky
[Posted in FML issue 1610]