About 3 weeks ago, there was a couple of ferrets posted from a
gentleman who's son was in the military and needed a temporary home
as the 2 were being kept by a friend whose mom said they needed to go.
The dad had stated in the post that he would pay for their care. I
told him I wouldn't charge, but anything he donated would be given to
the shelter. He agreed and took my address.

After contacting the dad and the dad contacting the friend. As they
were near my husband's work, he picked up the 2 fuzzies,the next day.
My husband didn't take the cage as it was full of cedar, and knew that
was a bad thing, and he had a pet taxi to bring them home in. The
'friend' sent the Walmart food with them.

The boy (Spaz) was seemingly healthy and big, but the little girl
(Mocha) was "extremely" thin, to the point that you could feel all
of her bones. As my 5 year old granddaughter said, "you can feel her
spine". After I bathed them, I cried as I really understood how thin
she was. She looked like a stick. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but knew
it was time she got fattened up. Both ferrets ate the chicken soup
pretty good (Spaz actually didn't just lick it, he took bites). It
wasn't hard to switch them to better foods. She actually preferred our
cat food, but was going to let her eat whatever she wanted. With the
help of FURRY, one of our local shelters, we got them to a vet. Mocha
was about 1/2 the weight she should be. Her blood sugar was 51. A few
days later I suggested to our vet that maybe we should put her on pred
and he agreed. She had been on the pred for a week.

Both ferrets had trouble walking to start with, so had assumed they
hadn't been out of the cage for the 4 months that they were being
"taken care of" by the 'friend'. Also had determined that they were
fed, but not sure how often, and that Spaz ate what he wanted, and
Mocha ate what was left, if there was any. Mocha never totally gained
her ability to walk without stumbling, but didn't really not eat. On
Sunday late afternoon, Mocha just didn't seem to have any energy, gave
her chicken baby food and then a little pred. She didn't do any better.
Later, I gave her some honey on her gums. No better. Put her in bed for
the night and then got up at 1:15 a.m. to see if I could get anything
down her. Nothing seemed to work. By 5:00 a.m., I figured her to be in
a coma. By 7:00 a.m., she had passed away.

Not sure what happened. She seemed okay, as okay as she had been, and
then the next thing she was gone. I just don't understand. She was such
a brave little girl. Seemed to have no fear of anything. Spaz gave her
kisses before she passed and had seen her giving him kisses the day
before.

To date, I've never heard from the dad, the son, or anyone. Even after
I told the dad that Mocha needed a vet and that Spaz also needed to be
checked. It's hard to believe that they could care so little. But I get
to live the sad ending and wonder what more I could of done. She knew
she was loved....for at least 3 weeks, and she had a wonderful home. I
just feel so bad that this 3 year old girl had such a sad ending.

Anyone have any ideas as to what might of happened? Maybe internal
damage due to starvation?

Thanks for any thoughts on this.

Connie

[Posted in FML 6961]