We took our little girl Slinky in to be spayed since she came into her
first heat.  We don't have ferret vets anywhere near us, but the vet we
selected spoke good English and said he had worked with ferrets before.
She went in at 10:30 in the morning and he said we could pick at noon or at
2:00 the same day.  My husband didn't get off work until 4:30 so they said
that was fine and she could stay.  When he picked her up, the vet brought
out a limp rag who's eyes were rolled back in her head.  He said an hour
earlier she had been fine and running around.  When he handed her to my
husband, he knew immediately that she was freezing.  Apparently they had
placed hot water bottles in the cage (stainless steel) to help keep her
warm, but she burrowed to the steel and laid there.  The vet checked her
vitals and they were good, he gave her a shot to help her and let my
husband leave with her.  The hubby put her inside his jacket and raced
home.  We placed her in a towel and wrapped a heating pad around her.  It
took her a half hour before she even started shivering and another couple
hours before the shivering stopped.  She was exhausted at this point and
slept the night.  Luckily for us she is a tough little stinker and the next
day she was up and around.  I never thought she'd be the same again, but
her guardian angel was with her.  I could not believe that the vet didnt'
keep her overnight, but after this I'm glad that he didn't.  I don't think
he was really negligent, but that he just didn't fully understand the
ferret's nature.  Being in Europe makes things a little harder for us since
the Europeans do things differently than we are used to in the States.  It
would be a good idea to remind a vet who doesn't specialize in ferrets that
their body temperature can drop quickly and a steel cage is not the best
place for them.
[Posted in FML issue 2924]