In the back of my mind, I always knew that spiders like to live in the dark
dusty corners and hidey holes that ferrets crave, but it never made an
impact until last week.  Puck is a 5 yr old ferret.  He is recovered from
Insulinoma surgery five months ago, and he has yet to show any sympoms of
its return.  Last Friday Puck was lethargic.  He was not eating.  He had a
fever.  We got him to the vet ASAP.  We knew that His symptoms were not
exactly like what we had seen in the past, but we knew that his lack of
appetite could bring on a hypoglycemic attack if any of the tumors remain in
his pancreas.  We did not notice a medium sized lump on Puck's side.  Dr.
Strope did.  Puck was having an allergic reaction to a spider bite.  He was
treated and returned to us when he got his appetite back.  Eventually the
bump became a yucky looking depression in his skin.  It has finally scabbed
over, and is healing normally.
 
During the Time Puck was at the vet, We turned our house upside down and
vacuumed under everything.  We never found the spider.  Dr. Strope said that
she wouldn't put it past Puck to eat the spider after it bit him.
[Posted in FML issue 2004]