Hind leg weakeness in baby ferret?

[Heather]

I'm glad to hear your litte sicky has become a wee furry beastie...finest kind Food aggression, hmm, that's what a ferret is about. A ferret motto, what is mine is mine, what is yours is mine too, until I've done chewing on it. Don't let him get away with keeping bad toys from you, but don't be surprised if he hisses and screams at you. We're going through the hissing stage here. I get hissed at when I pick them up, stop them from being bad, take forbidden toys away, so I hiss right back lol. The other day Boudicca (my professional hisser) spent about 5 min snuggling and hissing. I put her on the floor figuring she didn't want to be snuggled and she climbed right back up, so we sat and hissed at each other. Ferret forms of endearment lol
ciao

[Deleted]

Ok here is a very Brief clip of Bean terrorising my other ferret Lola, I say brief because now he's found his legs it's hard to keep up with him when he's charging round the house especially while filming lol.

[Heather]

I most definitely think that little one has found his legs. Great job
ciao

[gfountain]

Awww.. so good to see him running and jumping

[Sherry]

Definitely found his legs

[Deleted]

That is awesome! What a difference!

Sent from my BNTV600 using proboards

[Thérèse]

Great to see Bean is doing all the regular ferret things now

[Rae]

Hi, I also have a boy named Joey doing exactly the same thing! We got Joey, Mia and Peanut about a month ago and they were apparently born at the end of November. His brother and sister seem perfectly fine, but he is almost twice there size and drags his back legs. I am in Australia and just read this thread. Does anyone know where I can take him to see if it is this swimmer thing?

Thanks

Ps. Bean is very cute

[Sherry]

Best bet Rae would be to have an xray done. You can get him on a raw diet if not already, and add some extra calcium supplements. Also water therapy will help. Very warm water(you can use a sink) to get the back legs moving. If you join the fb group I can tag someone who deals with this on a regular basis, Kristy Johnson. This is her profile. If you message her I am sure she will respond when she can www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009532487359

[Lauren...]

Hi, could I just ask about the swimming like how anyone else makes them stay in for 15 mins and is it small breaks between?, I’m pretty sure my kit has it but looks a little worse than the videos of this ferret as he doesn’t walk unless he has to, just shuffles, but he’s showing no signs of pain when I move them for him. I tried the swimming this morning for the first time, made sure it was warm enough and put my hand underneath but he just didn’t like it whatsoever?i also have fish oil and egg shells ready as of today

[abbeytheferret6]

I hope you can find the answers you need to help your little ferret thru the old posts and maybe with your vet. A lot of the people above are not on here anymore or hardly.

www.unusualpetvets.com.au/rickets-in-ferrets/

while this is about dogs, it is still interesting
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3743573/#:~:text=Swimmers%20syndrome%2C%20also%20known%20as,an%20inability%20to%20stand%20or

[unclejoe]

ferrets are excellent swimmers, tho most don't ever get the opportunity. if they happen to fall into water, they just do what is natural. If you look at their feet they are nicely webbed. I have tried a few ferrets in water, and while most hop out at the first chance, a couple have played with it. We had one who was losing his sight. we lived next to a pond, and one day while out for a walk he walked into the pond and swam a good 50 feet before heading for shore. We also had a hot tub for a while, and would float them around in a clean plastic litter box, and a couple times Poppy jumped in for a swim.
Lukewarm to about 90 degree water, supervision and see how it goes. For therapy, yes, be there hands on. If possible, the water should be shallow enough at first os he can touch bottom

[Lauren..]

Thankyou, he’s really good and enjoys it! I keep it shallow enough for him to stand but he can also swim in it and put a few toys in there. He uses his back legs fully when swimming but still not brilliant with them waking, but I’m hoping within the next few weeks he’ll start using them properly. I’ve booked a vet appointment which is in a few weeks but for the time being I’m doing everything suggested that I’ve read here:)