I received a response yesterday to my letter explaining our concerns with
the sign on the ferret exhibit in the Heritage Farm.
 
Great news.  Dr. Beehler, Deputy Zoo Director, Animal Management and Health
stated the sign will be changed as quickly as possible to indicate that the
ferrets are domestic pets!
 
Too many times we hear of negative comments.  Now it is time to send Thank
you's to Dr. Beehler for his prompt actions.  Send thank you notes to Bruce
A.  Beehler, DVM, Deputy Zoo Director, Animal Management and Health,
Milwaukee County Zoo, 10001 West Bluemound Road, Milwaukee WI 53226.
 
Diane - I tried to E-mail you but it bounced and I thought others might also
be interested.  My explanation is in layperson language.  Would one of the
vets want to explain in medical language too please?  There wasn't anyone in
our area that had ever dealt with antifreeze poisoning in ferrets so our
treatment may not be the one of choice but in our case it was the best we
could do with what info we had.
 
The hydrogen peroxide was used to make the ferrets vomit to get whatever
antifreeze out that we could.  Syrup of Ipecac is easier on them but if you
don't have it in your medicine cupboard 1 cc of peroxide will do.  With
antifreeze poisoning the quicker the treatment the better chance of success.
The more we get out the less we have to counteract.
 
The activated charcoal is used to bind to the antifreeze so it will go out
with the charcoal.  One dose of 8-10 cc's per ferret immediately after they
stop vomiting.
 
The liquor is used to fight for the same functions as the anti-freeze.  1 cc
every 3-4 hours for 24 hours.  We used hard liquor for for the first 16
hours then switched to wine for the remaining hours.  Alcohol can poison too
so we need to be very careful here.
 
100 cc's fluids daily for 7 days to flush the kidneys and keep them working.
This is in addition to their regular food and water.  This is where the
nutritional supplements can do a lot of good as the ferrets are already
stressed and they take the Ensure or in our case Restore very easily.  The
Restore was mixed with Pedialyte.
 
And keep those babies moving.  Get them playing as much as possible.  What
do you do with a person that has overdosed?  You get them up and walking.
We do the same with the little ones.
 
There is a new treatment but as far as we know it has not been tried on
ferrets.  There is also a test that can be done 2 hours after ingestion to
see if the antifreeze shows up in the blood, but the vet advised us to do
the entire treatment anyway even if it turned out not to show the antifreeze
as he did not know how accurate the test was on ferrets.  We opted not to
run the test since the treatment would be the same.  The less stress on the
ferrets the better.
 
As I mentioned time is of the essence.  The quick actions and continued
treatments on the part of the owner saved these little ones.
 
Hugs to all.  tle (aka Sprite)
[Posted in FML issue 1668]