It is very interesting to hear that another ferret broke her leg almost
at the same time as my Gvsta.  I have been owned by ferrets for 20 years
and have had two or three together all the time.  Never before have I
experienced a ferret to break a leg even if many times I have been sure
they broke their necks...
 
Gvsta is only three months old and he normally plays quite wildly with our
big poodle Harri.(My ferrets have free access to my ferret-proofed house.)
At this moment Gvsta was just jumping from my bed to the floor and when he
landed he screamed first and then moaned for a while and then just did not
use his left front leg.  This was Saturday morning.  During the entire
weekend Gvsta and Harri played as usual, only Gvsta would rest much more
than normal.
 
Monday morning I took him to the vet who examined him and said probably
nothing is broken but we will make an X-ray just to make sure.
 
The X-ray showed both bones in his leg to be broken - very even and they
had not moved out of place.  Vet said to let him rest for three weeks,
which means keeping him in a little transport cage.  I could not stand that
so I keep him locked up in our smallest room which we have arranged so that
he cannot jump.  Vet says it will heal if we only keep him at rest.  Not
easy with a 3 month old ferret.  I spend my evenings in there keeping him
company - he is really in need of stimulation since he gets very bored.
Neither Gvsta nor Harri understand why they cannot play as usual.  Well -
only one more week to go.  However, it is obvious that he is in absolutely
no pain - he uses his leg, even to scratch, and my only problem is really
to keep him as quiet as possible.
 
My personal opinion is that if you have the leg taped to the body, the
muscles will wither.  Of course,whether to fixate or not, depends upon
wheter the bones are in position or not - Gvsta's were not out of place.
 
Day after tomorrow - two weeks after the accident, we will have a new X-ray
to see if the healing goes on.
 
This is one of many times when I see that the U.S. vets and the Swedish
ones, have different opinions.  Gvsta seems happy anyway.  I will revert
to the list next week and tell you all what the X-ray showed.
 
Greetings to all fuzzies and hoomans ( in that order)
 
Ingella Arwidsson
Sweden
[Posted in FML issue 2756]