I had the fright of my life early this morning and thought I would share
it with as a reminder to everyone to be prepared for the unexpected.
 
The fur children decided to have a sleep over in mom's room last night.
So they slept for a while and then begin to play.  About 3 AM I hear a
coughing noise.  The noise gets louder and more raspy.  I turn on the light
and begin searching for the source of the noise.  I find Butch on the floor
coughing.  I pick him up and he goes limp.  He's now choking as far as I'm
concerned.  I open his little mouth to get what ever is in there out and
he coughs more.  I see nothing and begin to dial the vet.  The answering
machine refers me to the emergency clinic and does give the number.  I call
the clinic and they tell me they don't treat exotics to call another clinic
that is about 25 minutes away.  Meanwhile I am giving him water drops off
my finger and stroking his little throat to get whatever is stuck there
out.  He is also licking Ferretcoat off my fingers.  He's still coughing
but he's not limp.  In fact when I put him down to dial the phone he
scampers off the bed into a basket.  I end up calling 2 other clinics,
having to get numbers from information and calling to find out that no one
under 25 minutes away can help me and I'm getting bounced from clinic to
clinic.  At this point someone who is 45 minutes away actually decides to
take a little time to calm me down and ask questions.  Now Butch is running
around on top of the bookcase happily breathing away.  He's not choking,
coughing, or appearing in any type of distress.  After describing
everything he suggests to wait it out a few more minutes.  Butch is now
doing his ferret thing and taking a nap.  I'm a wreck, he's fine.
 
The point in all this is I WASN'T PREPARED!!!  Now I am!  I have phone
numbers and directions to emergency vets that treat the fuzzies.  I want to
let other new parents know that things happen in a minute and we all need
to be prepared for the worst.  If it had been truly life-threating I would
be wasting precious time getting this information at the last minute.  It
only takes a few minutes to put the information together in advance and it
could save your fuzzy's life!
 
While I'm on the subject, can anyone suggest what I should put together for
an emergency first aid kit for the kids?  It would be really helpful to
those of us new to all this.  Please post to the list so the information
can be shared with others.
 
Thanks for listening/reading!  I get the best information from all you
people/ferrets out there.
 
Connie
 
PS  Butch is fine, no blockage, just a bit of food that went down the
wrong way!
[Posted in FML issue 2656]