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Just a little over six months ago our ferret , Puck had similar symptoms.
He had a hairball.  We did not notice that he was ill until he stopped
eating and started to vomit.  The grinding teeth is a ferret response to
nausea.  I know that they have a high metabolism, but I was still amazed at
how quickly a ferret will lose body mass.  He also quickly became dehydrated.
We took him to the vet and she gave him sub-Q fluids to re hydrate him so
that he could pass the hairball.  About a week after the hairball finally
passed, Puck got an sick again!.
 
Dr. Hynes thought that he must have another hairball and performed surgery.
She found no second hairball.  She was as upset as we were.  She worked so
hard and did a lot of quick research to find out what was up with Puck
before it was too late.  (Puck was getting more ill by the hour) We
discovered that most ferrets have Heliobacter (a ulcer causing bacteria) in
there stomachs normally.  Heliobacter will not cause an ulcer unless the
ferrets body is stressed.  Nasty hairball and stay at the animal clinic
equal big ferret stress.
 
I suspect your ferret has a hairball, but please please please, go see your
vet.  A hairball or blockage of any sort is really bad, but it can turn into
something even worse.
 
Thanks to Dr. Hynes and her staff, Puck is fat and happy again, and back to
his old self.  We regularly give him laxatone hairball medicine, and he
thinks it is treat.  Also, we never used to keep track of how much he eats
and poops, but now we stay aware.  We never want to see our baby that bad
off again.
 
Act quickly.
 
Theresa, Tim and Puck Kwasny
[Posted in FML issue 1755]