A little female sable was recently turned in to the Boston MSPCA shelter
by her former 'person' who, by his own admission, would hit her on the
face for biting (but he kept her friend, the 'nice' ferret).  So she was
separated from her partner, dumped at a shelter, and became a serious
biter.
 
I renamed her Lunessa and she has been living at my house for the past
couple of weeks.  When I hold her I often let her lick baby food off my
finger, which works quite well.  I also try to hold her in ways that she
can't bite me, but I have been bitten a lot, and hard.  She is terrified
of being handled.  So, if anyone wonders why you shouldn't hit a ferret
(aside from being cruel), this is why.
 
Today she had a reaction to her distemper vaccination.  It's the first
reaction I've seen in any of my ferrets (always pretreated with benadryl,
vaccinations always given separately).  I am assuming that the stress of
being handled may have contributed to her having a reaction.  When she came
home, she slept for a couple of hours, then threw up and had diarrhea with
blood in it.  She spent the afternoon at the vet's and fortunately seems
okay, but it was frightening.  The worst part was thinking that something
might happen to her and she wouldn't know that there were people who loved
her and cared about her.  If anyone would like to send little Lunessa good
wishes so she will feel better, and also loving thoughts, that would be
great.
 
If you live anywhere in New England, please consider adopting from a
shelter.  Ferret shelters are ALWAYS full and must turn ferrets away on a
regular basis.  The MSPCA shelters all have ferrets also.  If you are in
Mass.  and are interested in fostering ferrets, please let us know.
Thanks.
 
Ronnie
[Posted in FML issue 3201]