Well, Sammy just about crossed the bridge again today. With lots of pleading, hugs, and love he has decided to stay a while longer. Please keep in mind that he went from healthy, happy, and dooking to being in severe trouble all within 12 hours. That is why it is SO very important to always watch your ferrets. At 7:30 this morning I found Sammy laying on the floor. When I looked over the bed at him he got up, staggered, and then fell. I immediately jumped out of bed and picked him up. He was cool to the touch. He became completely lethargic. He couldn't even hold up his head. I grabbed some honey and rubbed on his gums and he started gagging and dry heaving so I figured that it wasn't a Insulinoma problem. I then tried to get some Kaopectate down him to help coat the tummy and he just gagged on it and spit it out. I then opened a new bottle of Pedialyte and gave him some of that. Once again he wouldn't swallow anything. He also felt very dehydrated. I then grabbed the heating pad and plugged it in, put a real light blanket over it, and placed Sammy on it. I then grabbed Buddy and Doris and placed them down by him. They immediate went over to Sammy, licked his ear, and then both of them flopped down right on top Sammy. I believe that they could tell that he was sick and needed their body heat to help warm him. The reason I say this is because the way the acted wasn't normal. It was like they looked at me and said, "Dad, Sammy is sick." (A person that has not been around ferrets very long might scoff at this but though of us that have been around ferrets a while know that ferrets have incredibly informative facial expressions.) Then, like I said, they went over and "covered" Sammy with their little bodies. I then placed another light blanket over the pile to help keep the heat in as I could tell that Sammy's body temperature was way below normal. Then I grabbed my laptop and pulled up the STAR (THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU AGAIN!) ferret contact / vet / shelter list and checked for the closest vet. To my dismay there were no close vets listed. I knew of a excellent clinic in Lincoln, NE that had helped Sammy before so I decided to try to get him there. The problem was that Lincoln was over seven hours away. I didn't think he had that long. I knew that he needed fluids immediately. So I took off running for Des Moines, IA which was only 2 hours way. (Please note: I drive a company owned truck that is governed at 65 mph so I didn't speed, only because I couldn't. <grin>) I got about 30 miles from Des Moines and I had a feeling that I should take the next exit and look for a vet in this little town. So I pulled off the interstate and found a vet right there! When I stopped and picked up Sammy and noticed that he was a lot warmer. I wrapped him up in a blanket and went in. The vet knew the basics about ferrets but he didn't know a lot about the ferret type diseases. He was open to any info I could give him though. He took Sammy's temp and it was just under 100 degrees (which is low for those that don't know). He gave Sammy an injection of 20 ccs of warmed Ringers (hydration fluid) and then he gave Sammy a shot of Centrine (This was to help stop the vomiting and heaving). He gave me a bottle of Clavamox and told me to try to get some down him in about a half hour after the shot took effect. I thanked him and left with a promise to e-mail him all the ferret FAQ's. He didn't have access to e-mail but his assistant did through the college she was attending. I then took off for Lincoln. Sammy was still extremely lethargic. He was basically a limp rag. I placed him back on the warm bed I had set up for him and Buddy and Doris came over and, once again, joined him. I got into Des Moines and pulled into a truck stop to fuel the truck. At that time I tried to get him to take some Clavamox, Pedialyte, or anything and he would just gag and spit it out. No matter what I did I couldn't get him to swallow much of anything. I then called Dayna Frazier on the phone just to get a second opinion on what to do. We decided that since he was just hydrated he should be fine for a few hours so I took off for Lincoln, NE. (Little did I know but Dayna then sent out a bunch of messages to people asking them to say a little prayer for Sammy and send some good thoughts his way.) Within the next two hours Sammy was swamped with prayers and good thoughts coming at him all over the country and world for that matter. All of this I didn't find out till later. After about two more hours of driving Sammy finally poked his head out from under the blanket. This gave me a little hope. I picked up the ever present treat box and pulled out a cherio and placed it down by his nose. For about 5 minutes he ignored it then he licked it once. Then about a minute later he very slowly ate it! I was so happy I wanted to pull over and do the "Toyoda jump" but I figured I better keep moving. I drove about another 15 minutes and came to a rest area. I pulled into it and decided to try to see if I could get some Pedialyte down him. To my complete joy he took 23 ccs of it without a fight at all. I was so happy I decided to try to get some a/d down him. To my amazement he took 28 ccs of it!!! I stopped as soon as he started fighting it. I then put him in the litter box as he was still have extreme difficulties in walking and to my horror out came a ton of the blackest liquid I had ever seen. I just about quit breathing. He appeared to be bleeding internally from something. I then wrapped him up and took off again for Lincoln. [Two posts combined. BIG] We arrived about 2 hours later (I had called ahead so they were waiting for me). Sammy took another 20 ccs of Pedialyte and then I put him in the litter box. This time he only went a little but the diarrhea was only slightly black this time. I scooped it up and took it in with me to have a fecal smear done on it. When we went into the vet at Lincoln, NE it was about 8 1/2 hours from when I originally found Sammy. He was a lot more active. He was looking around and doing a lot better. The vet did a blood sugar test on him and found it to be 105 which was great! At least it didn't appear to have been Insulinoma related. He checked his temp and it was now up to 100.7. The vet did a fecal smear and found nothing really out of the ordinary. Sammy was also no longer dehydrated. His color looked good and Sammy had started to get up and be the regular curious ferret. He wanted to check out the big white cold thing what he was put in to see how much he weighed. He wanted to see what was in those neat clear containers that was on the desk. It was amazing to watch the transformation from a deathly ill ferrets to a healthy, but exhausted, ferret. The vet couldn't really find anything major wrong (other then a lot of bacteria in his stools) but nothing that should have caused the crash. He gave me a prescription of Amfloral to use instead of the Clavamox and he also gave me a prescription of Carafate liquid. He said that Carafate would coat and help protect any part of the GI tract where the walls had thinned or ulcerated and give them time to heal. Since that time Sammy has continued to improve. He still isn't eating on his own but he readily takes the a/d that I hand feed him every two hours. He is also taking the Pedialyte with no problems. He gets up and uses the litter box all by himself. I think I am going to start giving him some Kaopectate to help firm up the stools because they are extremely runny but there is no longer any trace of blood at all! Yea! I want to personally thank all of you that offered prayers for Sammy and also for all of the positive thoughts that were send his way. I also want to thank God for his help in both helping me and helping Sammy. I have no doubt that the reason that Sammy recovered so fast was because of the concentrated support that he got form so many people. Thanks you all! You are awesome people! Jason, Sammy, Doris, and Buddy ICQ # 7528859 (Sammy's Dad) ICQ - www.icq.com E-mail: [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 2303]