Well did we have an INCIDENT the other day.  One of our bathroom cupboards was
not secured the other day (we have child locks on them that ferrets can't get
open if latched properly).  When I returned home I found a really big mess
along with bathroom cleansers all over the place.  They had gotten a huge
bottle of Windex open and spilled it all over.  I found the bottle in one
room, the sprayer in another room, so apparently they had playing with it for
a while.  They were licking it up off of the floor too and Zoey was complete
ly soaked with Windex.  So, I immediately called the Poison Control.  They
said Windex had glycol ethylene or something in it which was poisonous.They
said that one of the signs of poisoning is if you can't rouse them from a
sleep (NO KIDDING - that would also be a sign of death!) Well, anyways, they
didn't give much info to go on, couldn't tell me what to do or what to watch
for.  So I piled 5 of them that were suspected in a carrier and headed to the
Emergency vet.  This was about 11:30PM.  I sat in the waiting room for about
one and a half hours (they were very busy that night).  At about 1:00am I
decided that if they were going to get sick - they would have after this
length of time.  And they seemed fine.  So, I left.  Well, they have been fine
for almost 2 days now.  They had diarrhea for a little while which is over
now.  So - what do you do if a ferret has been poisoned?  Do they pump their
stomachs - give them epicach - adrenaline etc like with humans?  I suppose
that maybe kidney damage could have occured with poison flowing through it,
right?  What do you watch for when you suspect your ferret has been poisoned?
The poison control people said they didn't think that ferrets would vomit up
glycol ethylene, but they seemed pretty unsure.  Any info out there?  Should I
have them checked out by my vet anyway even though they have seemed fine for a
couple days??  Had I seen a doctor that night what would s/he have done to
examine and determine poisoning?  Charlene
[Posted in FML issue 1214]