A few hours ago I was brought a young polecat coloured jill.  The poor
little mite had been left in a cardboard box outside the back door of
a pet shop in Bury, she'd probably been there all night.  The pet shop
owner had done his best for her before he brought her to me however,
she was in a pitiful state.
 
She was very weak, suffering from malnutrition, dehydrated and also
hypothermic - she was also infested with fleas and has ear mites.  I gave
her some honey and water in the hope that it would help her, she did
manage to swallow the fluid as I gently syringed it into her mouth.  I
sprayed some Frontline onto a cotton wool ball and rubbed it down her
back.  She is covered in flea dirt and I could see the fleas crawling
through her fur - her coat is very thin.
 
I took her up to see my vet a couple of hours ago, I actually arrived
before surgery started and Julia, one of my vets, was talking to the
nurse.  I just told her that I had a very sick ferret.  Julia wasn't
bothered about starting early and we just went straight into the
consulting room.  She was horrified when she saw the little jill, I don't
think she'd seen a ferret in such a sorry state.  After examining her,
checking heart rate, it was beating a bit fast, her breathing is a bit
noisy - some fluid in her lungs, stomach was completely empty.  The poor
jill has absolutely no body fat - so no wonder she was cold.
 
Julia gave her a steroid injection, put a drop of Frontline in each of
her ears to deal with the mites.  Julia also handed me some electrolyte
and a couple of syringes for giving the jill water and food.  I left the
jill at the vet whilst I went to get a chicken breast and some single
cream from a nearby supermarket.  On arriving home I cooked the chicken,
added some complete ferret food, and water and put the lot in my food
processor.  Whilst it was cooling I used a syringe to give her some water
with the added electrolyte.  When the gloop in the food processor had
cooled I spooned some out, added a teaspoonful of cream.  I drew 3ml of
it into a syringe and lying the weak jill on a towel on my knee managed
to get her to take the food.  I put her back into her cage and covered
her in fleece blankets.  She was already feeling a lot warmer.
 
When I glanced at her cage shortly after feeding her I was surprised to
see her wobbling across the cage to the litter corner.  She's now settled
down to sleep after having some more food and water.  She still doesn't
appear able to eat for herself or maybe she enjoys being held and having
a fuss made of her - the poor little girl deserves that at least.
 
I just have to hope that she continues to improve and will put some
weight on.  She is so thin.
 
--
Sheila
Bolton Ferret Welfare a NON Register Charity
Web Site: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ferreter/bolton.htm  last update
5 Dec 2002
NFWS web site http://www.nfws.net updated 6th October 2003
Waiting at Rainbow Bridge:- Jill, Deanna Troi, Cameron, Carnath, Button,
Bill, Bobby, Jasper, Inga, Holly, Fergle, Amanda, Sparky, Daniel,
Blackie, Marvin, Claude, Bumper, Kurt, Tasha Yar, Larry, Lily, Ben,
Fritz, Dax, Kelley, McCoy, Brock, Snowy, Dumpling, Buddy, Stumpy,
Treacle, Max, Scrap, Vanessa, Sarek, Paw Paw, Badger, T.D, Spooky,
Stanley, Tara, Oliver, Alfie, Sindy, Beano, Lulu, Scully, Brecon, Lady,
Tuppence, Casanova, Beverly & Geordi La Forge.
[Posted in FML issue 4297]