Serious concern: One of our shelters being bleeding rectally last night.
He has seemed healthy but slightly stressed for the last two weeks, since
he came here.  No history of anything except possibly food allergy, which
we've seen no signs of.  He's living at the emergency vet clinic right now,
on an IV for fluids and nutrients, and they're going to do play things by
ear--blood cell counts (probably not a CBC at this point, unless she sees
a reason to do it; if we don't do it now, we'll do it next week, assuming
he lives), injections to keep him alive, the whole nine yards.
 
The vet doesn't think he has a blockage--she palpated him and didn't feel
anything, and he didn't seem to have any sore or tender spots when she did
it.  She said his gums were paler than she thought they should be, but that
other than that and mild dehydration she didn't see anything strange.  She
mentioned different kinds of enteritis...
 
This ferret was eating and pooping perfectly normally until last night, and
his activity level was at the low end of normal.  Please, if you have any
ideas about what could be the problem, email me and let me know.  I lucked
into a ferret-knowledgeable emergency clinic vet, and her relief staff for
today is my ferret vet's husband ( hope he calls his wife if he doesn't
know what to do).  Still, having extra ideas would be great.
 
Why can't these things happen at 9 AM instead of 11 PM?
 
>It would be nice to know why people think a loner ferret needs to be in a
>single ferret home?  Meaning a ferret people say just don't get along with
>other's.  Please discuss how you come to this idea?  How many different
>ferret's have you tried to get this loner to be with?  How long you
>allowed a new ferret to be with this loner?  What actions told you the
>ferret needed to be alone?
 
It's simple, really; periodically we get a ferret through here that
genuinely doesn't like other ferrets.  Sometimes she's afraid of them and
wants to be with humans all the time; sometimes she's extremely aggressive.
We never tell anyone that a ferret can never have another ferret for a
companion, but we do tell them when a ferret would be all right as an only
pet.  Most would be lonely.  Still, when one of our ferrets won't eat,
sleep, or play with any others, that's a good sign that she'd be happy with
only humans to play with.  (Males too, of course, just defaulted to the
female pronoun thinking of Lucy, one of ours who doesn't like others much.)
 
>How do people pick a shelter ferret?  Meaning do you allow your ferret(s)
>to play with all the ferret's in the shelter?  Or do you pick a few you
>would like and then let your ferret(s) play with them?  How do you decide
>the new one with be the best for your ferret(s)?  How long do you allow
>them to play together before you decide?
 
Most people who already have ferrets do bring them to the shelter and allow
a carefully supervised meeting; they they usually find one or two ferrets
they'd be interested in adopting and we take them to another room so we can
really see how they'll get along.  Most people decide after not-too-long;
one of the ferrets simple crawls into their heart much faster than any
other ever could.  I've adopted out some "unadoptable" animals, and I know
that there's a person for every ferret.
 
Jen and the Crazy Business
[Posted in FML issue 2866]