My poor sick ferret, Ike.(What to do?)

[Queen of Poop]

Any luck with force feeding him?

I'm praying and asking my RB ferrets to help you with Ike and that he will take the soup and regain his strength. The lupron alone will not make him better, he needs nutrition and fluids.

Ferrets are such lovely, but delicate creatures. They can take a turn for the worse very quickly.

I had one die from a stomach hemmhorage (sp?) that came out of the blue and even an autopsy couldn't figure out why. I had another die from an enlarged prostate, a complication of adrenal gland disease - he was receiving monthly lupron injections. My third one died in January of this year from cancer, his little body blew up like a balloon. We did surgery, they removed 3 cups of blood from his body and did a bunch of biopsies. Turned out his cancer made his blood vessels leak. He died 10 days after surgery. Sebastian, my last remaining ferret had adrenal surgery in Nov 2004, the tissue has grown back and he is suffering all the effects of the disease again.

Please let us know how you are making out.

[husky_lover]

I've been force feeding him all day today but I'm not sure how much he has actually eaten. I just got done trying to feed him about 5 min. ago and he didn't even fight me this time but he still didn't swallow much of the soup. He just let it run out of his mouth. While I was trying to feed him, I noticed that his neck feels really swollen. I'm taking him to a different vet in Manhatten kansas(the k-state collage) tomarrow. I almost feel like I'm making him suffer. I've been trying to feed him ever 30 min to an hour. Thank you all for your help!

[Queen of Poop]

Good luck with the vet today and thank you for trying to force feed him. If he even got a bit into him that's better than nothing. Hopefully this vet will give him some sub-q fluids and that will get him on the road to recovery. I wish you all the very best with this visit. I'm praying to my 3 RB ferrets to keep a close eye on you and Ike today and to encourage him to fight on and get better. Hugs to you.

[husky_lover]

Well We just got home from the vet. He did get some fluids today but he is still really weak. The good news is that Ike will now eat some of the soup. Thank you all for your help and prayers!!

[Queen of Poop]

YA HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Tears of joy!! I'm so glad he got fluids and will now take soup. You should notice him getting stronger in the next few days. Please keep a close eye on him as he's not out of the woods yet, but this is WONDERFUL news. Thank you for your persistence. Give us an update tomorrow if you can, he's still in my prayers.

[husky_lover]

Ike is eating more and is now drinking on his own!!!!! I'm so happy! Thank you for your help. One question, I have my ferrets down in the basement(that's where we spend most of our time) It's getting pretty cold at night and I'm not sure how to make sure they are all warm. I have lots of beds and sleep sacks in their cage. Their cage is four stories high. But poor Ike shivers alot. Is it ok to put a electric heater by their cage on low?

[Queen of Poop]

Firstly, I am so excited that he's eating soup and drinking on his own. You've done so well with him!!! Big hugs to you and your wee boy.

The heater might take the chill off but won't really warm him up. What I have for Sebastian, since he's a lone ferret now, is a pad I bought at the petstore that is for cats recovering from surgery. It gets warm from his body and keeps that warm in the core of the pad. He loves it. It's rather large so I fold it in half and put a fleece blanket in the middle for him to snuggle into. This is where he spends all night now that it's colder here.

Ferrets also like to cuddle up in the sleeves of old sweatshirts. If you threw a couple of those in the cage in their beds, etc. that might help too. Nothing quite so cute as a ferret sound asleep in the sleeve of a sweatshirt with only his little nose poking out.

Once Ike gets some weight back on and hopefully grows some hair he won't shiver quite so much either.