"Tickle tummy, tickle tummy!" - a fun game to play with young kits when they start showing playful signs. I tickle this baby's sweet tummy and her little front legs grab for my fingers and her mouth is wide open as she "mouths" my fingers. A simple joy with kits and with this kit, much more than a simple joy. Because this is the baby who did not know she was supposed to die. Some weeks back I wrote a description of what 4 week old kits were like and I think I mentioned that I had a single kit a few days old that I did not expect to survive. Single birth or single surviving kits rarely survive unless their is another jill with a litter that can foster the baby. One or two kits are rarely able to stimulate mama enough by nursing to produce milk; and mama almost always comes right back into season. This is nature's way. Precious reproduction time is not wasted on one or two kits. And the newborn kit is virtually impossible to hand-raise. The neonate kit is simply a small body with a perfectly crafted sucking device for a mouth. The mouth is very small. The kit's mouth is shaped like a funnel - the roof of the mouth is a channel and the tongue furls up at sides, and the jaw muscles provide the ability to suction the nipple to the back of the mouth to the throat. The kit then swallows the milk. Kits do not develop the ability to transfer liquid or food from the front of the mouth to the back until they are approximately 3 weeks old. Mama's nipple elongates from the suction and enlarges apace with the growing kit. This baby's mother gave birth quite easily to six kits, cleaned them up and then ignored them. All seemed well, as I constantly fetched them from corners of the nest and out from under her the first day or so. Then I had to be out of the house for most of a day and returned to find that she had ignored her babies. All were lost except for one who cried pitifully and tenaciously kept trying to nurse from a mother that moved away from her. I gave the mama a very small dose of oxytocin to get a "let down" reflex so the kit would get some milk. I followed this procedure with tiny doses of oxytocin twice a day for the next few weeks. Oxytocin brings in milk, but there is no information as to whether or not small repeated doses will cause harm to the jill. My guess is that it does not if used carefully - it has been used in other animals and humans for many years. (No flames on this please, the mother is fine and although I don't know much, I doubt there are many who know more about lactation than I do). These tiny doses provided only enough to barely sustain life. Meantime, the hunt was on to find something that was small enough and the kit would accept as a "foster" nursing device. Nothing was found - and I had tried before as well. Several friends swung in to check with wildlife rescues and store search. Most in the catalogs I have tried, or already had -- the smallest is too large for a newborn. Most kits succumb in about 24 hours or so on artificial feeding attempts. I suspect most due to aspiration. Patiently, every two hours, in dread fear that this would happen, I carefully opened the kit's mouth and gave baby a few drops of formula or STAT to the back of the mouth. Each day as she stubbornly clung to life, I did not know if I was glad or sad for her because she was showing such a growth deficit. So tiny. Such a will to live. Her little cries brought tears to my eyes. Her mama spent most of her time trying to get away from her - standing up in the cage with tiny baby hanging on to barely producing nipple. A lava pack was kept in the nest to help maintain her body temperature (Exclusively Ferrets - they are wonderful). Before I knew it, one week had passed, and then another, and then another and she was still alive, but so tiny. At three weeks we had a crisis. She became sick with diarrhea and I did not expect her to live more than a few hours. A friend who came over and saw her comforted me by saying that I had at least kept her alive that long. I added lactobacillus to her formula - she was taking more now - and put her on a "drop" of Amoxi. She survived and the next morning was better. Then she developed a severe prolapse of the anus and vulva. This is because the formula was hard for her immature system to digest. I soaked her little bum in warm water (I had been cleaning her with warm water or witch hazel pads) and kept the prolapsed tissue moist with neosporin ointment. It seemed now that we were living from crisis to crisis. Lady Lark's babies were way too large to foster to; and Black Molly's babies were born weeks after she was. However, Rosie went postmature and delivered 7 stillborns - one baby was quite necrotic and I suspect this formed toxins that did in the rest of the babies. I removed baby's mama and put Rosie with her. I didn't even try to stimulate Rosie's milk - but knew she would provide warmth and caring for baby, as she did. Another friend named her Bobette, but superstitiously I did not want to name her. However, soon she was being called Bo-Be, short for Bobette. Her mama was spayed. Again time slipped by - she was, I estimated approximately three weeks behind in normal development. At 5 weeks she developed a serious bloat and was in considerable pain. I consulted with one of our vets and we reviewed what I was giving her. Chicken baby food from a spoon and her formula was Esbilac Puppy Milk Replacer to which I added a small dollop of Fellovite 11, STAT and Nutri-cal (I was making it up as I went along!). Nutri-cal, surprisingly, was thought to be the culprit because it contains fibre. Not much, but maybe too much for an immature digestive tract. I had taken Bo-Be off all food and was giving her Lactated Ringer's Sub-Q. She was so small I could only get 3 cc's in different locations under her skin. Her vet said to continue this and so I did for near 48 hours as her tummy gradually came down. She went back to her diet, sans nutri-cal. She had perked up quite a bit on the Ringers. Her eyes opened and I feared she would be blind. The ferret's eyes continue to develop in the weeks after birth. But she could see! I was so happy with that one victory. She could see! By now she was also climbing out of the nest box, crossing to the litter box, and laboriously climbing in to use the facilities. What a bright and smart little girl! So good. This process took so long though that she would often have her bowel movement while still trying to get in the litter box. I considered taking out the nest box and giving her just a sleep sack and a much smaller and easier litter box to climb in. I decided not to do it. The efforts she was making at climbing, I felt, was building body strength. So I let her struggle. Now she fairly hops in! As I write these words, Bo-Be is now nearing 8 weeks of age. I no longer get up every two hours during the night. She still lags in development, but now has a mush dish that she avidly consumes and I often see her chomping away on a hard piece of food, although she still has her milk teeth. She is still tiny enough to fit in the palm of a hand, but growing every day. Right now she is hanging over from the neck of my shirt and watching my fingers on the computer keys -- she has climbed down twice to chase them. All life is precious and this wee little ferret with the strong will to live is testimony. She no longer has a prolapse of her rectum, it corrected itself about a week ago. She is a black-eyed white and those eyes and that sweet little face are to die for. She has a sweet, gentle and trusting nature. I think she will remain a tiny ferret, but it doesn't matter - she gives love and she is loved. She taught me to never say again "It can't be done" and she taught me that while there is life, there is hope. Meg [Posted in FML issue 2344]