Hind leg weakeness in baby ferret?

[James]

Hi all,

Not a member here (yet) but this seems like a good forum for people who have ferret related questions.

I currently have 3 ferrets, 2 girls (Lola & Elsa) and the newest addition a little boy (Bean). My concern is with Bean, he is only 3 months old now and he doesn't seem to be using his back legs as a ferret should, I have had him for a month and initially i put this down to him being a baby and being in a new environment, he sort of slinks around on his belly as both my girls do when they just wake up or when they are a bit nervous, however he doesn't seem to have grown out of it.

He is able to use his back legs, but they seem to slide beneath him, when he wants to move fast he hops a little with his bum so he can get around but hes no where near as active as my girls were at his age, when he plays with them instead of jumping around and running he will just roll on his back and use his front paws and mouth to defend himself. He also never stands and seems to lay down/sit on his bum most of the time. I have been trying to research hind leg weakness but my results mostly come up with issues related to older ferrets, Insulinoma being a regular result, i'm not sure if this would be evident in such a young ferret.

I'm coming to the end of the "he's just a baby maybe he's still learning to walk properly" thought. He's still a great ferret, my only worry is although they all get on great and snuggle up together I've had to keep him separate as the girls live in quite a big cage with multiple levels and tubes and hammocks and i'm concerned that he wont be able to deal with the climbing involved.

Does anyone have any light they could shed on hind leg weakness in baby ferrets? And also if anyone has any advice regarding weak back legs and multi-level cages I would greatly appreciate it. If it will help I will try to video him walking so you can see what I am talking about.

Cheers,

James

[Thérèse]

I would get a vet check. The only thing occurring to me is birth defect or injury. The cases that I can think of that you might find some info on with a search are, one wee boy some years back who had a paralysed rear end, can't remember the cause but I remember his name was Tim and I remember someone donating him a sort of wheelchair to help him get about (searches on Timmy the ferret may yield some stories on him). The other thing to try searching for is swimmer ferrets. Their is a birth defect that can cause the ferrets to not be able to use their rear legs properly and the resultant kits I think were called swimmers. I have never seen a swimmer ferret but I heard about them in a lecture at an IFCA ferret health symposium.

Sorry that's not much help, really think a vet visit is your best option, wishing you the best of luck with your wee one

[James]

Hi Thérèse and thanks for your reply, I have him booked into the vets next week to be registered so I will bring it up then.

One thing i did forget to mention is I suspect he was younger than I was told, when i picked him up he was supposed to be 8 weeks but he was tiny (hence the name) he actually fit in my shirt pocket! The breeder told me that he came from a big litter and the mother was struggling to feed them all which was why he was so small, could either him being younger or the fact that he may have been a runt be a reason for the not walking properly?

I've uploaded a couple of videos of him walking to see if anyone has any opinions;





he also helpfully decided to have a scratch while I was trying to get him to walk so you can see his back legs do work to some degree...

[Deleted]

Bean 1s just darl1ng, and a very handsome boy.
Clearly, he 1s not mov1ng around normally. T1me to f1nd out what the Vet says, and 1 hope you w1ll keep us updated. All of us care so much about these l1ttle ones. After your Vet v1s1t 1dent1f1es the problem, one of our ferrents may have had some s1m1lar exper1ence and be able to offer some "phys1cal therapy" solut1ons.

[Heather]

I don't know where you're located, Australia has a problem with swimmers in ferrets. It can be corrected to a degree if diagnosed early enough but vetting is absolutely necessary. This is not normal for this age of kit. You need to get this diagnosed. Swimmers is caused by poor calcium absorption and genetics. There are too many other issues that it could be. As cute as this little mite is, for him to lead a normal or near to normal life, pain free he needs to be vetter asap
ciao

[Sherry]

He does indeed look to be a swimmer's baby Poor nutrition in mum and baby once weaned. Definitely vet him, and I'll link Phaedra here. She is our Australian member with the most experience with this.

[James]

Thanks for all the info, i'm based in the UK but if its caused by poor nutrition (which wouldn't surprise me considering how small he was when i got him) i don't suppose location is much of a factor. I'd be grateful to speak to someone with experience of this to see if there is anything i can do to help improve his condition and what to expect from the vet? Thank you all so far for your replies

[mjbez]

What a sweet little guy. So so cute. In the videos (Bean 1 and Bean 2) was it just me or did his back right foot look turned in towards his body?

[James]

Yea it does, both his legs kinda go under him as he walks, its hard to see because he lays so flat to the ground and even harder to video because if i'm videoing from behind he turns around to see what i'm up to. His legs don't look twisted or anything when i hold him up so I don't think its any kind of major deformity.

[James]

Does anyone know of any links with information about Swimmers Syndrome in ferrets, i'm googling like mad and still can't seem to find anything, plenty of information about it in puppies but it doesn't look like the same condition as their legs splay outwards.

I'm thinking i may have to build some kind of spiraling ramp system in the girls cage before he moves in, hes ok getting up a slight incline as his current cage has a ramp which he uses.

[Sherry]

Phae is in Australia. She has tons of experience due to taking in a number if rescues as well as coaching others through this. She will be here as soon as she can
@phae

[Thérèse]

Ok. After all the discussion re swimmer syndrome being a thing in Australia only, I did a little googling. I'm pretty bad at getting what I'm looking for from google but I did find an article (on the 2nd page of my google, the 1st just being swimming ferrets) that seemed to be on HFF by the address bar. It had reference to swimmer syndrome (being more common in puppies) as osteodystrophy. So I googled that, thinking maybe it's just that Australians use the term swimmer ferrets but that others get it but don't use that term. My brief look at osteodystrophy made it sound a bit different. I also then googled rickets in ferrets because I did know a number of kits had at one stage come into NSWFWS with rickets and my ideas on it being something to do with calcium deficiencies, legs and growing made me think maybe it was the same thing but just different terminology. Didn't see any references within my search that also referred to swimmer ferrets but did find a brief description in a medical place discussing mink diseases that just sounded so like Bean

look at this definition of rickets

Maybe discuss rickets with your vet too

[James1]

Aug 4, 2014 4:00:33 GMT -5 Thérèse said:

Ok. After all the discussion re swimmer syndrome being a thing in Australia only, I did a little googling. I'm pretty bad at getting what I'm looking for from google but I did find an article (on the 2nd page of my google, the 1st just being swimming ferrets) that seemed to be on HFF by the address bar. It had reference to swimmer syndrome (being more common in puppies) as osteodystrophy. So I googled that, thinking maybe it's just that Australians use the term swimmer ferrets but that others get it but don't use that term. My brief look at osteodystrophy made it sound a bit different. I also then googled rickets in ferrets because I did know a number of kits had at one stage come into NSWFWS with rickets and my ideas on it being something to do with calcium deficiencies, legs and growing made me think maybe it was the same thing but just different terminology. Didn't see any references within my search that also referred to swimmer ferrets but did find a brief description in a medical place discussing mink diseases that just sounded so like Bean

look at this definition of rickets

Maybe discuss rickets with your vet too

Thanks for doing some research I really appreciate it, we have the vets tonight at 5:40 so I will keep you posted, the rickets idea is definitely a contender and I'll be sure to mention it!

[Deleted]

Looks like a typical Swimmers kit, only just early stages, so not really that bad.

You can start by supp'ing vitamin D & calcium in his diet, that'll address the main issue, plus feeding him a typical balanced raw diet. Fish oil capsule ever second day & either liquid or powdered calcium supp will work. You also need to get him swimming in a bath of very warm water once a day, to get the weight off his legs & still allow him to build muscle mass. He needs two 15 minute sessions to start, then increase to 30 minutes twice a day.
You also need to be massaging his back legs & paws, along with stretching them & bending them how a normal ferrets would. 4 sessions daily, of 10-15 minutes each.

Swimmers is an INDUCED deformity of the skeleton, it is basically Rickets. It can be due to either lack of Vitamin D or Calcium or both. A very small number of ferrets may have a genetic predisposition towards it, most coming from BEW/DEW/Silver backgrounds, but it is quite correctable prior to 6 months of age, after that chances of correction are pretty minimal.

[bitbyter]

This is an article I wrote up about it when Phaedra rescued a swimmer kit within the last year.


docs.google.com/document/d/1B4Jd84mHaE4BCNr5X7kK86ZYnaNrkYov9aLwn-rEIGM/edit