I've had a ferret for about 6 months now and I just love the whole
experience.  You might say that I'm fully hooked on them as I'm sure most of
you can relate.  I do have a warning, though, for everyone to be very
careful, as hopefully you already are.
 
I became interested in owning a ferret after moving in with the current
roommate I have now.  He owned a wonderfully sweet ferret by the name of
Mud.  Through knowing Mud, I eventually got my own.  Shortly after getting
my baby, Mud became very very ill.  She stopped eating and dropped tons of
body weight in just a couple of days.  She became so weak that she could
only get around by draging her body around with her front paws; and even
that was quite a task.  Naturally, we took her to the vet as soon as we
started noticing something was wrong.  Unfortuately the vet misdiagnosed her
as having some kind of parasite.  So, even though she was on medication, she
did not get better and she died.
 
After Mud's death, we ok'd an autopsy.  This discovered that she had gotten
into some kind of poison in the house that her kidneys could not filter out.
Eventually, she died of kidney failure.  To this day, we have no clue what
it was that she got into.  And, since we are used to having lots of animals
around the house and are very careful about these things, the whole thing
bothers me.  I certainly hope this does not happen to you.  To be absolutely
sure, though, it couldn't hurt to do a complete walk-thru of your house to
make sure nothing is in reach of your ferrets (if/when they are allowed to
ever run around and play).  Anything from a cleaner on a rag left out in the
open, to roach and bug poisons are common, everyday, usually out of sight,
sort of things that could be deadly.  Please be careful.
 
p.s.- since this incident, our house is again filled with the sound of two
ferrets running about with noises of merriment......  eeeeuuuueeeeeeeeuuu.
:-B)
 
Matthew Guest
Tampa, FL
[Posted in FML issue 1827]