Hi everyone!  I found your list 3 days ago in desperation.  I'm a new
ferret lover/owner.  My girl, Snowy, (albino, real original, huh?) is
2 1/2 years old and we got her from a teenager who was going off to college
and couldn't take her.  She is a sweet, sweet thing and has brought me the
type of joy that only people like yourselves can understand.  We've had
her 3 months.
 
Well, I've spent alot of time trying to educate myself of the right, wrong,
good, bad and ugly of ferret care.  But, Snowy was happy and healthy, and I
had her previous vet information so I wasn't too concerned.  Sunday morning
she bounced out of her cage and after two bounces she just laid her head
down and didn't move.  She was doing a chomping, like of smacking noise and
I knew I was in trouble.  She wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink.  No pooh and no
piddle from the night before either.  Well, the vet she'd been going to is
in an adjoining city and didn't answer his pager and the vet for my cat
wasn't open on Sundays and doesn't see ferrets anyway.  I got on the web, I
made Duck Soup, I smeared my fingers with chicken baby food, you name it --
if I read it I tried it!  I was afraid (and inexperienced) about how to
force feed a ferret.  I stayed up all night trying everything I read, and
every 4 hours I tried again.  It didn't work.
 
Snowy has been at the vets since Monday very early with a very high white
blood cell count and a BUN of 63, (normal about 30(?) She was dehydrated
by the time I got her there.  They are giving her fluids and antibiotics.
They haven't identified where the infection is coming from, the stomach
x-ray didn't show anything, and basically the vet is still looking for the
problem.  She says Snowy is normally too young for renall failure, unless
it's genetic.  I don't know of anything that she could have eaten that
would have poisioned her.  We are very, very careful during playtime!
Anyway, I'm a basket case and I just had to share with everyone out there.
I also want to thank Bill and Cynthia Hill for their help and comfort up
to this point.
 
So, any comforting words would be GREATLY appreciated.  ANY ADVICE,
recommendations, questions, suggestions, hints, etc.  about being a good
ferret parent are welcomed at my personal email.  If any of you are in
Houston, TX please let me know.  The AFA doesn't list a group in Houston,
so I'm looking for good contacts.  Thanks so much for your help.  Your
stories have made me laugh, cry, and want to adopt a couple of more, which
we were going to do as playmates for Snowy and I.  Right now, though, I
need good stories about how long your ferrets have lived and how they
survived an infection.  After reading the list I feel like fuzzys may be
prone to all sorts of difficult diseases and health problems that would
just break my heart.  I don't want that to be true!
 
Thanks again for your input and help.
Snowy's mama
[Posted in FML issue 2927]