To Andi: I have never figured out how to clean ferret ears effectively.
Usually, I just have to settle for getting one swipe with a Q-tip and a
dab of mineral oil -- not very far inside their ears, because I don't
want to hurt them -- and that has to do for a while. Additional swipes
or meticulous cleaning are out of the question, because they fight
getting their ears cleaned more than anything. Clipping nails is a breeze
by comparison! So if anyone has a better method, I'd be interested in
knowing about it, too.
 
To Cyndi: Welcome! I know you've been reading the FML for quite some time
now. To everyone else -- Cyndi introduced me to ferrets almost three
years ago. Her little Halley is the first ferret I ever saw! That was
a very special event in my life.
 
Just now, I looked out the window to see beautiful, huge white flakes of
snow falling and blanketing the ground with maybe an inch or so. I've
been waiting for this for a long time so I could put my ferrets in it.
They were all suitably intrigued -- Esperanza as usual tried to run for
cover near the crawlspace under the house (No, no, Espie, come back
here!); little Lucky Charm aka Jumping Bean jumped and romped around
until I brought her inside when she sneezed; and Frankie Plays With
Shoes buried her nose in the stuff and started sniffing a trail around
the yard! She's come a long way from being the little girl who was
terrified to go outside when I rescued her in June -- but who can blame
her, another family found her half starved in the wilderness and took
care of her. They thought she was a boy until I recognized her swollen
vulva and knew she needed to be spayed -- just in time, too, because a
few days later she was starting to show signs of infection.
 
I took Lucky Charm back to the vet Friday because she was still vomiting a
lot of undigested food. While she was there, the vet heard her
cough and I told him that was the sound she always made right before she
vomited. He took an X-ray and decided her lungs were probably infected
and prescribed some antibiotics. She's doing much better now -- an
occasional sneeze, but no more vomiting. Has anyone else heard of this? I
suspect her problem all along may have been that she had some kind of
respiratory tract infection that caused her to sneeze, and the sneezing
(or just not feeling good) caused her to vomit. All the while, she
continued to romp and jump on the other ferrets and behave like she was fine.
 
                        Linda, Espie, Frankie Eats Bananas, and Lucky Charm
[Posted in FML issue 1090]