Dr's, Weiss, Willams, and Duton,
 
I purchased a very small male ferret yesterday from a local pet store (they
knew almost nothing about them or they would have noticed there was
something wrong with him - I did, I knew he had problems right after I
picked him up).  Anyway I had my vet look him over and he has a prolapsed
rectum (my vet said she's seen the work of the Canadian vet on the health
certificate before) which she has me putting Topagen on the area 3 times a
day we are hoping it will help shrink the rectum.  I would like more
information incase he needs surgery for that.  I won't give him back to the
pet store because I know they would put him to sleep.  My vet also wormed
him because he has a protruding stomach but is very thin every where else.
I have been carefully watching the stools but have not seen any worms.  He
appears deaf, has six toes on his right hind foot, I think his bone
structure feels funny but maybe it's just that he's so thin.  I've named him
Job for obvious reasons.  Job is a silver I think with a white head and in
the light his eye are ruby red altho' they appear black when not in the
light.  I need to know what we are in for with possible birth defects and
health problems so we can prepare.  We want to give him a wonderful life for
how ever long it is, he's such a sweetheart.  He's barely 6 weeks old.  Any
help if you've seen this before would help.  We are feeding Job a mix of
Totally ferret, Iams kitten food, Marshall Farms ferret food and Kay Tee
ferret food.  We wet it down with warm water.  We also keep the dry down for
him too, his stools were more of little clumps almost like constipation when
we got him, they are more normal now, the pet shop fed only dry food.  For
the time being we have him isolated from our other 11 ferrets because he's
seems so fragile, they are eager to meet him but will have to wait until
he's older or better.
 
TIA
Vicky
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[Posted in FML issue 1532]