About three months ago I sent a post to the FML requesting help and
advice because Princess developed mastitis two weeks after giving birth.
I was in a real panic and had many responses with much needed advice.  I
am sorry to be so late with this post, but I did want to thank everybody
for their care and advice.  Now for the good news.  All eight of our
babies survived and are doing just great.  The have beautiful coats, good
weight and are happy bouncing little and big guys.  We started
bottle-feeding immediately and had to use KMR replacement milk.  When the
kits were three weeks old, we started putting some canned science diet
with their milk and gradually made it thicker until they were on heavy
mush mixed with totally ferret and proplan.  Sometimes I was afraid their
little bellies would burst they ate so much.  Due to the bottle-feeding,
they really bonded with my husband and I, they followed us around and
would come running like their tails were on fire if we chuckled at them.
They are really great and we love them so much it's hard to part with
them.  One of the problems that we have found, however, is that they seem
to have tartar build-up on their teeth already and we have to clean them
off.  I suspect that this is probably due to being on the mush longer
than they normally would have been had Princess been able to nurse.
Other than that, they are the picture of health.  With regards to
Princess, I would put her in the sink with warm water and soak her belly
three times a day for anywhere from five to ten minutes to help bring the
poisen to the surface.  I would also bathe her belly in betadine solution
after her soaks.  We also gave her .30ml of amoxi twice a day.  She is
now back in good health and doing great.  She did come back into season
shortly afterward, due to not nursing her kits, but since she healed up
so quickly we were able to take her out with our vasectomized male.  Very
much the gentleman, he was very gentle with her.
 
My husband and I learned a lot through this experience.  One of the
biggest things we learned was to alway try to have two females pregnant
and due at the same time.  That way if there is a problem with one of the
mothers, the kits can be given to the other mother to nurse.  We were
very fortunate that we didn't lose any of our kits through this fiasco.
I believe it was only because we were aware of what was going on with
Princess that we knew something was wrong.  For one thing, she is usually
an excellent mother.  She would never leave her babies wonder off from
her.  This particular day she did and made no attempt to bring it back
closer to her.  When I put the baby back to her, she got up and flattened
out on her belly.  That was when I knew something was wrong.  We looked
at her very carefully, but didn't see any physical signs.  We checked her
like every fifteen minutes and after about two hours, we noticed the lump
rising around one of her teets.  We immediately took her babies from
her.  I posted my SOS to the FML and thanks to the many responses we got,
everything worked out great.  Thanks to everybody again and I am sorry
that I didn't post sooner on the outcome.  Sorry this is so long, but
another FML'r made a good point.  There are a lot of sad stories lately
and thanks Carla, your right, this is a good story and should be posted.
 
Pat and the "FERRET GANG"
 
(BIG...you can edit this if it's too long.  Sorry!)
[Posted in FML issue 1127]