Hello Everyone,
This may end up being a long post and I'm sorry for that, but here is the
story.
Ever since I brought the new little fuzzbutt home, there has been some
strange behavior from my other ferrets as well as alot of poop!! Everyday
I would come downstairs and would just get exhausted looking at what had to
be cleaned up. Then I notice Madelyn had become lethargic. On closer
examination I noticed that her vulva seemed a little swollen, not much, but
noticable. Then cleaning up the poopies, I discovered the green slime!
Not knowing who was doing it I made an appointment at the vet for Madelyn
since she was the one who was showing signs of something being wrong.
That night when I went to clean the cages I found more green poopies in
Casey's litter box, as he is caged separatly for litter training purposes.
But he seemed ok. On Tuesday morning I took Madelyn into the vet, I also
took in one of the green stool samples. I was more concerned with one of
2 things or both, Madelyn was in heat, or we have ECE. Once at the vet,
Madelyn started doing the strangest thing. She would grab the poles of the
examination table, which were metal, and looked like she was humping it!
When she would move there would be urine there. She did this repeatedly by
either grabbing the poles or draping herself over the cross bar. The vet
also thought this was srange so we took those urine samples and had an
analysis done. The UA came back clean and so did the sediment test done on
the urine, so there was no sign of UTI. The stool sample also came back
clean, no parasites or anything else. The vet also said that her vulva,
while only slightly larger than normal, wasn't large enough to for her to
be in heat. She gave me the number for a ferret vet, someone who actually
specializes in the little ones. I call him and he also confirmed what my
vet told me. The vulva isn't large enough for them to be concerned with.
With all that said and done, my vet prescribed Metronidazole, to treat for
ECE. I've also spoken to several ferret friends, who've gone through this,
and they said that I really dont have ECE since there is no diaherea or
really smelly stools. They all eat and drink and play. Madelyn is the
only one who would only come out for a few minutes then go back to bed.
I've been giving them their medicine for a couple of days, and the large
amounts of poop have disappeared along with Madelyn's lethargy going away.
Which I took as a good sign. Until tonight when she walked up to one of
the chairs that has metal legs, grabbed it like she was humping it and when
she walked away there was piss again! I'm not experienced with ferrets in
heat, but I'm really worried that this is what is happening. If anyone
out there knows why this is happening I would really appreciate hearing
from you.
Just a few more quick notes, they said that a ferret in heat, the vulva
should be the size of a small finger nail, Madelyn's isn't. Her's is about
2/16th's of an inch, whith concerns starting around 7/16th's of an inch.
This is the first time since the vet that I've seen her do this. Also,
all the large amounts of pooping have ceased and everybody has been using
litter boxes and not the middle of the floor or around my computer. I'm in
a bit of a hurry for information as I'm approaching a critial point if, in
fact, she is in heat.
Thanks in advance
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Captain Ferret of the Federation Starship USS Fuzzcruiser
Casey - First Officer
Madelyn - Lieutenant
Max - Security Officer
http://www.oz.net/~puppy/ferret.htm
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[Posted in FML issue 2786]
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