Dan Kinney <[log in to unmask]> recently pondered:
>Anyone else have dreaming ferrets?
 
All of my ferrets *DREAM*...the flicking paws...the twitchy whiskers... But
Tremor, my *ANGEL* with the Ferret equivalent of Parkinson's Disease, has
"night terrors"...where he will wake from a "dead" (limp) sleep, scream or
trill (depends on how bad it is), and *RUN* across the floor, tripping over
himself, banging his head on the floor as he does so, and trembling
uncontrollably (far more than usual!).
 
Whenever I'm there, I try to catch and hold him before he can bang his
brains out...I hold him until it goes away and he can go back to sleep.  My
son does the same thing when he's there and I'm not.
 
He's truly pathetic looking when he does this...I heard from one person that
it might be ear mites, but it doesn't look like that to me...I've heard of
"night terrors" in humans, and those are the exact symptoms he has.  I've
also seen him do that from a "chasing rabbits" type of dream (the fidgetty
dreams that dogs usually have).
 
The others have fidget dreams...I'm sure Satan is chasing Tremor in his
sleep...Snipe seems to do more mouth movements...he's so fat right now that
I suspect he's dreaming of eating...<grin> Schnitzell seems to do less
twitching than the rest, but she will *ROLL OVER* (not that her 1# mass does
any damage...<grin>) and not wake up in the roll...snake fidgets and dooks
in his sleep (as a rescue, it's great to hear him dooking...he didn't
originally get along with other ferrets *AT ALL*--now he sleeps with Tremor
and Snipe more than not!).  And Karma wiggles.  In her sleep.  She likes to
sleep *IN* things, and has adopted a dryer hose to sleep in.  Don't ask me
how she molds herself into the corrigations...<grin> But you can see the
pipe wiggling, and when you look in the end that has her nose peeking out,
she's definitely asleep.
 
Tremor is the only one with regular, major, nightmares.  We're his third
owner/pets other than the pet store we got him from.  The other people
couldn't deal with his shaking...I fell madly in love with him, handicap and
all.  I wish I could cure those night terrors though...I just want to cry
whenever he has them!
 
Hugs!
 
Cheryl & Douglas (humans), Peekle (peekinese/beagle puppy),
Snipe, Schnitzell, Tremor, Satan, Snake Pliskin, and Karma (fuzzbutts)
 
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(using the account at work till I get a new home phone)
[Posted in FML issue 1872]