Possible Swimmer Syndrome Kit?

[Nayse Alice]

Hi all and nice to meet you!!
I'm not a member yet, hopefully I'll be one soon
I own two Marshall ferrets (the country I live only brings ferrets from that farm ) and Im taking care of a ferret kit until october (also a Marshall, the born date said is 1st July but with Marshall its a bit tricky to know if it's true).
He looks so healthy and big (around 780gr), eats well and plays a lot. But when I could see him walking I notice that he had a weird issue in his back legs. I took him to the Vet inmediatly and we had some x-rays done to discard most problems. The analysis said there were no sign of bone issues in the spinal, hip and back legs (there should be notorious in the case of Swimmer Syndrome? or maybe on too early stages it's hard to notice?).
The Vet recommend to give him 1ml of a cubs medicine per day (calcifying, vitamin, regenerating cartilage is wrotten on the bottle, its like a syrup). The kit also cries more than other ferrets when he is alone in the cage (he is separated from my other ferrets because if the legs issue). And gets louder if I put him in the carrier to take him somewhere . On the other part, he is a really loud dooker when he is playing. He is not letargic, eats well and poops looks normal.
I've seen the case of Bean that gives me hope he can fully recover from this but I would love any guide or advice experience that the members have to share.
Another issue is that here (in my country) we only have access to Marshall Premium food and it's hard to get 100% free salmonella crude meats (I could get my ferrets to eat chicken, chicken liver done with grill and boiled egg yolk as treats). We still doing all the possible to get better foods but it's getting hard (import restriction issues).
I'll post a video of the little kit soon.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice word! .

[Nayse Alice]

Here is a video

[RedSky]

Where are you based?
Most users (if not all) recommend a raw diet, either feeding whole animals (rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits ect) or a frankey prey or prey model diet, which is using often larger animals in the correct quantities to replicate what they would get from a whole animal diet so using say lamb chops (muscle meat), chicken wings (bone), beef heart (heart for taurine), pig liver (liver and other organs are very important).
It sounds a little daunting but once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to do. Maybe have a look into it, much better than even the best kibble or any 'ferret food' out there. It can also be mainly bought from local shops, supermarkets, butchers ect but many people order online in bulk.

[Deleted]

Hi and Welcome to the HFF

Your little one is Darling. I see the issue with his back legs. We have Ferrents on the Forum who have dealt with almost every issue and hopefully, someone will have a helpful answer.

If you feel comfortable with PM'ing your location, you might PM Sherry and see if she knows of anyone from your area. Sherry is our resident Ferret Guru and runs the Forum.

If you can find another member from your Country, they may better be able to advise you on Diet options.

If you need any help navigating the Forum, just ask.

[Nayse Alice]

Thanks for the warm welcome!!

RedSky
Yes, I'm aware the more natural the food the better!. The kibble is a h*ll of grains and vegetables, and the poops and sizes compared to the raw meat ferrets are the proof . The issue I'm having is that my country (sadly) has really low quality control regarding to the meat when its handed to the stores. Even though the meat here is high quality (for export rather than inner consume) and the salmonella controls are there (though we still have some salmonella problems, from some producers which is always a risk). When the meat arrives to the stores, the cold chains are usually broken and there is a lot of problems regarding the real date the meat has been packaged (in the case of packaged one). And well besides salmonella, we can't be 100% sure any other bacteria came in. It's a long story, if I could get meat directly from farms I would feel more safe than the supermarket that is close to my home (that's why the 100% raw diet its going to be tricky for me but I'm really interested into learn more!).

@poncesmon
Thank you!. I'm currently located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. My country has been importing ferrets around 10 years and in really small groups. Since we have some mustelidae family members which are wild (one of them is the galactis cuja), part of the requirements to enter is that they should be spayed. Marshall usually does that when they are too small and well all the other problems that you all are probably aware of. I'm part of a group of ferrents in Argentina, and we try to share the knowledge we have, and well, aware future ferret parents or people interested in them. We even have a great Vet and his team that is really caring for them (he accepts calls anytime even if its too late at night) and keeps updating to be aware of the most know issues regarding their health. But again, we're still quite new about ferrets.
This kit case was a surprise! where everything seems to be normal except his walk.
We're having some importing issues also and the only kibble we can get is Marshall (not even their Carnivore line yet :/), so I'm also very interested in learning more about diets that can complement or at least help to improve their lifes.

Again, thanks in advance for the help and all the experience is more than welcome! . English is not my native language so probably I'll have some spelling issues .

PS: I registered to the forum but I didn't do the message part so I hope the admins still can get my register in.

[bitbyter]

It's a little hard to tell from that video because you were so close to him. Would it be possible to take a video from further away while someone else plays with him? That would give us a better angle on his back legs.

[Nayse Alice]

bitbyter
I've seen your document at the Bean article very helpfull! Nice to meet you!! .
I'm going to get a better video and post it as soon as possible. Also the x-rays if that helps. The back foots tends to go randomly behind or outside. He has quite strong front legs yet problems to jump or get to some places where back legs strength is needed. Sometimes he seems to walk more "normal" and keeps trying to hop and jump. But the back legs doesn't help (one its more strong than the other tough).
Also he tends to get dirty with his own pee (I keep cleaning him with baby hypoallergenic towels 100% free alcohol).

[Heather]

Is it possible that he's injured his back or hip at some time. Having dealt with back injuries more times than I care to, he walks like he has. Marshal ferrets don't usually have swimmers. As much as I hate the company and they do horrible things to their kits, swimmers isn't one of the issues that is their problem. Their food though garbage, does meet their required needs in supplying the calcium needs of their kits. In watching the short video this does appear to be a possible spinal or hip injury. I've seen 2 xrays of ferrets who move similar to your little one and the spine and hip doesn't appear to be damaged but some swelling can be observed when looking for it. It took a chiropractor to closely check on the xray to see the mildly displaced disk.
ciao

[Nayse Alice]

Heather
Thank you for your experience!. Im going to try to make a clearer video of Ciro's (the kit) movements. Regarding to a possible injury, is there anything I can do just in case that's the problem? I'm keeping him away my other two ferrets -just in case- and keep all his playtimes (until he falls asleep) checked to avoid any further harm . He has to be caged when not on supervision and he is in a big cage without ramps. I'm sadly aware now regarding to all the Marshall issues after I bought my first ferret Sake (sable). My second ferret Freyja (cinnamon) was an adoption / re-sale from a person who didn't want her anymore:




Ciro is the little kit who has the issue

[Heather]

I've got a wee one right now who seems to be responding to pred to bring the swelling down. I don't know what the ultimate outcome might be. We debated treating with pain meds but because this wee one that I'm treating is a kit and we're trying to keep him quiet we opted for just the pred. As horrible as it sounds we're hoping that the pain will control his rambunctious behaviour. He's just now getting out time by himself. His cage is a large flat, with no ramps or hammies. He's got lots of soft bedding and has actually made himself a nest. He spent 10 days in cage while on his first dosage of pred. He's now just on his second day of out and about for 2 hrs at a day. I can't say I'm seeing any improvement other than he appears to be enjoying himself. As this appears to be a soft injury vs an actual spinal injury it will probably take 6 to 8 weeks to heal. It's very hard to keep him quiet and calm and he was devastated when he was separated from his 2 sisters who actually caused the injury in the first place.
ciao

[Sherry]

I agree that odds are it is an injury instead of swimmer's. Also to let you know- ferrets are built to handle issues like salmonella It passes through them far too quickly to be an issue.

[Nayse Alice]

Hi all! Im adding some more videos and a picture of the xrays . He doesn't seem in pain (he cries a lot when I left him in the cage alone though). Im still giving him the calcium reinforcer everyday, but I didn't see so much change yet (we started on saturday).

PS: I had to replace the audio with some music, my neighbor was drilling noisily at the time

[Deleted]

Btw Thanks a lot for letting join the forum!

[nancyl]

I have a friend in Australia who used to have/breed ferrets and had at least one litter of swimmer kits. She no longer has ferrets but I'll give her a yell on facebook and have her take a look at the video to see what she thinks.

I have messaged Val. Due to the time difference I don't know when she'll get a chance to look and get back to me.

[nancyl]

OK, Val looked at the video and she says he looks nothing like the swimmers she had and hers were pretty much a textbook case. True swimmers are physically deformed in limbs, spine and usually have a very prominent bulging sternum. She's of the opinion, like several others here, that this is most likely an injury. Probably of the spine rather than hips or legs.