Nope, not one word.  Instead, this is a happy story, if a bit long, that I
thought people might like to hear, as there have been an awful lot of sick
ferret postings lately.
 
Eve and Chester came from a small (and wonderful) shelter.  There wasn't a
whole lot of information about them, but it was clear that the pair wanted
to eat the cheapest kind of dry cat food.  Eve is a tiny albino, thin and
lethargic--she'd sleep except when she wasn't eating.  Chester, a sable,
was unusually docile and tended to 'mother' Eve a bit, but he looked pretty
healthy.  And the vet found no problems with Chester.  He believed Eve was
older than we'd thought, but was relatively healthy for an elderly,
underweight ferret.
 
The other ferrets beat up Chester constantly.  I hadn't seen anything like
it--they wouldn't leave him alone, and he never fought back.  Eve, on the
other hand, shrieked at any ferret besides Chester who came too close to
her.  So we had separate playtimes.
 
They learned that Bob's chicken gravy is pretty tasty stuff, and they both
gained weight.  I began to suspect a hormonal imbalance--Chester still
wouldn't do anything to defend himself, and Ivy was always trying to drag
Chester off, as she did with kits.  But he had no symptoms of illness.
Then, all of a sudden, Chester's tail hair fell out, fast.  He went from
furry to half naked in about two weeks.  Adrenal surgery--our vet talked
with Dr. Weiss first (although he's done many adrenal surgeries) and, as
suspected, it was complicated.  The vet removed one adrenal gland, an inch
of vena cava, and a piece of liver.  He said he'd never seen such an
enlarged adrenal gland.  In other words, extremely serious surgery.
 
Well, Chester came through with flying colors. He bounced back quickly.
Along with new hair, he developed a new personality. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
Well, actually, he's still a lovable, sweet ferret, but he doesn't let
anyone beat up on him anymore. (I think Ivy was rather surprised by this
change.) About the same time Eve came to accept the other ferrets--although
she preferred to sleep alone, she'd tolerate some company.
 
Then, shortly after Chester's success, I noticed that Eve was even more
lethargic than usual.  She moved slowly and would remain where I set her.
And she'd visibly lost weight that she really couldn't afford to lose.
Bony, weak.  Not good signs at all.  The vet took one look at her and said
that if she had ECE, she probably wasn't going to make it.  But the slide
showed something a little more hopeful.  She had almost none of the normal
bacteria in her gut, but she did have a large amount of clostridium, which
is usually only a small component of the normal flora.
 
Clavamox, Kaopectate, and Gerber's babyfood chicken, as well as Bob's
chicken gravy, for the last two weeks.  Then yesterday I knew Eve was well
again--she acted like a ferret!  Instead of going to sleep right after
eating, she decided to check out the ferret tunnels.  This was the first
time this little critter had ever done this.  Eve is well!  Hurrah!
 
There you have it--two healthy ferrets and a happy ferret story.
 
Best wishes to all of y'all, ferrets and ferret people, for the New Year.
 
Jacqueline
[Posted in FML issue 2913]