I am writing this letter out of fustrstion.
About a month ago Obadiah's (ferret shelter that our club works closely
with) took in a ferret who was extremely sick. I knew "Zucchini" very well
because I work at the animal hospital in which she was a patient. She
became our patient after transferring from another practice that was across
town. Not to sound mean, but the owners really should not have had ferrets.
Last year I met and "fell" for their ferret,"Zucchini", when she was
brought in on an emergency visit, suffering badly of heat stroke. They left
her outside, in her cage, expecting the "human"  kids to keep moving her
cage out of the sun and keep her in the shade.  Well like most kids, they
went off to play- forgetting about the ferret. She responded to treatment
and was one very lucky ferret. She stayed in the hospital for a couple of
days and went back to that house.
   To make a long story shorter, she was turned in to Pat Nothnagle at the
shelter a month ago in very bad shape. She was skinny, lethargic, bald,
dehydrated, her tounge and gums were VERY white. My boss,(the vet) did
blood work (CBC) and her PCV was 11%, which means that she was SO anemic
that she should be dead! (between 30%-50% is normal)  1st thought was
Aplastic Anemia due to not being spayed, but on her records from the other
hospital it said she was spayed and decented back in '90, so the next
obvious was adrenal disease (Bald back,very slight vulva swelling...)
The point being she wasn't going to make it through the night (most likely
anyways) because of how bad she was. We gave her fluids under the skin, and
an injection of vit.B complex, and an anabolic steroid called Winstrol (a
bit harder hitting than pred, I have only seen him use it in extreme
conditions were the animals are VERY bad.-Her spleen was so small you could
hardly feel it!)
Guess what.. she made it through the night! We continued the Vit.B and
winstrol for 6 more days. With in the 6 days her color was much more
normal, she was eating and moving around!!, But we needed to find out what
was going on internally, now that she was "stable".  The doc suggested
surgery for the adrenal problem, while in there he could "look around" and
make sure very thing else was O.K.  So we did, once in there, however, he
discovered the "real" problem. Her adrenals seemed to be nice normal size,
but he WAS NOT expecting to find a UTERUS!  We have all the records from
the other vet saying he spayed her several years ago!  No, there could not
have been 2 uterus, nor could it have "grew" back! (Not including 2 new
overies!)    The previous owner still has her paper work saying they spayed
her (and the copy of the bill in which they paid to have it done!!) They
only had Zucchini at the time, so they couldn't have gotten 2 different
ferrets mixed up either!!  I'm stumped.
I work at an animal hospital, so I try very hard to stay "professional" and
not down grade another vet/practice. But its getting hard,- seeing Zucchini
come so close to dying due to "missed" things!   How can an uterus on an
ADULT ferret be missed???  Pluse there has been other issues with this vet
that I won't bother to go in to.   I'am very greatfull that Zucchini beat
all odds and made it back from the Aplastic anemia, not meny do. Needless
to say, she is a permanent member of my household!    I'm sorry for venting
so much, but I need to stress to new ferret owners,- check with other
ferret owners to find a good FERRET vet, don't just ask one person, get a
few opinions,  don't be afraid to ask the vet questions! If they are vauge
answers, or not clear answers and something dosen't sit right, get another
opinion!
 
By the way, to whom asked if ferrets can be made to go into heat 3-4 times
a year,  Yes. It is a process of "tricking" them by altering the lighting
in controlled enviorments. I can't remember all the "body chemicals" or
hormones that are in volved, but they go into heat when certain hormones
are released, Ferrets being seasonaly polyesterus, are influenced by light
to produce these certian sex hormons. That is why they only go into heat at
certain times of the year, (decrese in natural light,decrese in production
of these sex hormones.) The "ferret factories" mimic natural light (use UV
lights I think) to bring them back into heat.
Fox's "Diseses and Biology of the ferret"  talks about all that.
[Posted in FML issue 1309]