Hi, I've been away from this list for a very long time but after what
we have been through in the last 3 nights made me make the time to write.
I have always been aware of the danger associated with having rubber items
in a ferrets reach and so I have always kept these things put away out of
reach.  My 2 year old albino ferret, Binky, somehow managed to find and
hide a rubber sink stopper under the cough.  She has done this before with
the bath tub stopper but has never swaloowed any of it, just gnawed on it
alot.  This time she decided it had to be devoured and devoure it she did.
She didnt eat that much of the stopper but it was enough.
    We came home Tuesday evening and took the ferrets out to play and
Binky, the most active and playful of the two only wanted to go under the
couch and sleep.  First we bathed them because she often gets lazy when she
goes too long without a bath.  I later noticed she was constipated and the
bath did no good, in fact she was even more listless and lathargic then
before.  A little bit later she came out and threw up behind a chair, this
was the only time she really threw up but continued trying most of the
evening.  She was also not really eating or drinking.  We called the 24hr
clinic and they paged a vet who knew ferrets.  He talked to us for awhile
and instructed us to feed her some pedialite (rehydration fluid for babies)
and some karo syrup.  If she was able to hold it down she would be okay
untill morning.  She seemed to do better and held it all down but I stayed
up watching her untill 3:30AM.  The alarm goes off at 5:30.
    I took her into the vets office first thing the next morning and he
examined her and confirmed my suspicion that she had swallowed the missing
pieces of the stopper.  He felt a definite bulge in her digestive tract.
He needed x-rays before proceeding further and I had to get into work so I
left her there.  The doc called back to inform us she had a blockage in the
beginning of the intestine and alot of foreign matter in her stomach so he
need our permission to operate to remove it.  He worked on her for an hour
and fifteen minutes and had to open up her stomach but he was able to
massage the blockage in the intestine back into her stomach so that he only
made one incision in the digestive system.  She made it through the surgery
in one piece but we are still keeping a constant watch for any signs of
infection.
 
    She came home today after spending the night at the vets after the
surgery.  She has a nasty 1 1/2" to 2" incision from the bottom of the rib
cage down.  She managed to get down her first meal tonight.  Being as picky
as she is all she would eat was her iams kitten food crushed up with
ferretone.  But she did eat and seems to be getting better slowly.  She is
just very tired and I think in a little pain.  She was very lucky,
according to the doctor she would not have lasted much longer at all
without treatment.  It was expensive, $245, but the little critters are
worth it.  She will be back to normal in a few days.
    All I can say is that although Ive always known about these things, it
never happened before so I guess I had kind of relaxed about being positive
there was no way she could get at anything that could cause problems.  I
will never never relax like that again.  Make a sweep of your homes and be
sure there is nothing your little guys might suddenly one day decide looks
tastey.  You dont want to go through this I assure you.  Please be careful.
 
                                Ken B, Jackie B, Pookie, and of course Binky
[Posted in FML issue 1242]