I am writing about my 4 year old albino Sneeuw.  Since having her
vaccination shots mid Feb.  her health has had a lot of ups and downs.  She
was fine after the shots but the next week at night we heard her gagging so
we got up to look at her.  Gave her some water walked around and she seemed
to settle.  But later we heard even more gagging and when we were at the
cage she was limp and feeling kinda cold so we took her to the emergency
vet.  The entire time she just lay limp on my lap.  When we got there and
had waited for about 15 min.  she started to wander around and by the time
the vet got to see her she was pretty awake and curious.  The vet decided
it was a flu of some sort and gave her subq liquids and an antibiotic shot.
That seemed to improve her.  But in March I noticed she was not eating and
was much lighter.  So we took her into the regular vet.  He kept her for a
day and a half.  He had no solid answer - it was either: ECE, heartworms or
an allergy to her food.
 
He said there was no way to be sure without being invasive.  Since I had
walked around a pet store where I had seen the ferrets be allowed to run
on the floor we thought ECE was most likely, esp.  since the ferrets are
indoor and her food is a mixture of totally ferret, Sheppard's and
marshals.  We hand fed her Science a/d and nutrical and she started to gain
weight.  At the worst of it she dropped from 2.5 to 1.5 lbs.  Our other
ferret also lost weight and ate less but at least she ate and her weight
drop was .5lbs.
 
However, it is June and Sneeuw still is not back to eating regular pellet
food.  She will eat ohs if you offer them to her and we have been crushing
her normal food and mixing it with the a/d but she shows no sign of
returning to the pellet food.  The vet has checked her teeth, her stomach
and can't find anything.  So he says watch and wait and keep mixing bigger
pieces of pellet into the a/d.  Anyone have any suggestions?  The vet says
the ad is not too bad to be on for extended periods.  Sneeuw will smell
pellet food and stick her nose in but she won't eat it.  Even covered in
lax aire she licks around the pellet.
 
Thanks for any help.  Sincerely, Cheryl, Sneeuw and Sushi.
[Posted in FML issue 2711]