It's been a long time since I've been able to keep up with reading the
FML let alone actively post. I figured that my latest incident is worthy
of a swift kick-in-the-butt to do so. Yesterday one of my four fuzzies,
Frosty, took a rapid nose-dive health-wise and ended up in the pet
emergency clinic.
 
A few days ago I noticed Frosty started experiencing some diarrhea (normal
color, not green as with ECE) which persisted for a few days.  Aside from
that and a slight lack of his usual perky personality he seemed to be ok.
He had good weight, his fur coat was nice, and he still performed his tricks
for treats (and ate the treats too).  So I thought maybe during a walk in
the park he picked up a bug or something that had him slightly under the
weather so I decided to just keep a close eye on him.  Well, yesterday
morning I went into their room to let them out of their cage for play time
and usual maintenance stuff and Frosty was obviously in VERY bad shape.  He
came out of the cage and went over to the outside litter pan, climbed in
and just plopped down.  He didn't have the energy to lift his tail or do
anything and I'm not sure if he even went.  He laid there for a while, then
got up, climbed out, and plopped right back down flat again and just laid
there for a bit.  Then he made an attempt to run across the room and his
hind legs kept going out and he finally flopped over sideways and just laid
there.  At this point I started getting a bit nervous and tried the usual
tummy rub which typically gets him riled up thinking maybe he was still
waking up (that jedi mind trick rationalization stuff that human minds do ya
know).  No reaction.  I picked him up and was mostly limp.  Now panic starts
setting in.  I took him near a light to get a good look at him and he looked
like he was miserable.  His eyes also looked like they were turning inward,
but it was hard to tell, especially when at this point I was going nuts.
 
Well, after fighting to stay calm, I called the emergency clinic since the
vet was closed on Sunday, got directions and got him there as fast as
possible.  They did x-rays (no barium though), a blood test, and quickly
determined that he was majorly dehydrated.  It was a must for him to stay
over night and receive intravenous fluids.  The x-ray didn't really show
much except a possible enlarged spleen.  The blood tests indicated a very
high white cell count which the Dr. said typically indicates an infection
of some sort, probably a bacterial one.  This is all the emergency clinic
came up with.  They had no diagnoses for his problem.
 
Frosty had to be discharged by 8:00 am this morning as the emergency center
is only open off-hours, so I had to get him to a vet.  The east-side of
Cleveland doesn't have any vets that I know of that have lots of ferret
experience.  My usual one has some so I feel comfortable going to him for
usual things but I remembered that Linda Iroff and Bev Fox from The North
Coast Ferret Shelter had highly recommended a vet on the west side (quite a
trek from the east side for those not familiar with Cleveland).  Anyway, I
wanted the best care I could get so I got a hold of Linda last night and she
was very helpful giving directions to the vet (Dr. Wayne Turner - Animal
Clinic Northview).  I got up super early this morning (to avoid rush hour),
picked up Frosty and hauled him across town to Dr. Turner where he is now
being further tested.  He was still miserable looking when I left him there,
but at least he is still alive and seems to be stable.  Hopefully I'll no
more later today.  I'm hoping for a positive diagnoses with treatment since
he is only 2 years old!  Too young to see him go just yet.  :-(.
 
Thought I would share this with everyone as a lesson of how important it is
to really pay attention to your ferret's behavior and that even small
changes coupled with diarrhea or other illness symptoms can be worth a trip
to the vet immediately vs.  waiting.  This was my first experience with one
of my ferret's having a major illness so I wasn't sure what to do.  Maybe
this will help someone else to act a little quicker under similar
circumstances.
 
Sorry for the long post.
 
Todd Lockemer
- Frosty (very ill, but still with us so far), Snickers, Kimba, Duchess
[Posted in FML issue 2305]