LindaM, heather

[LindaM]

That sounds a bit odd to me.. They put him to sleep just to give him the implant? Usually, most vets will just give the implant without putting the ferret under with anesthesia because it can be quite dangerous with how small ferrets are, thus most reserve that to actual surgeries instead.

I'm so sorry that you guys are having this issue, I will keep you guys in my thoughts and prayers. Please keep us updated on what the vet says. If anything, at least they will be able to keep an eye on him and keep him hydrated for now.

I'm also gonna tag in some of the admins who are much more experienced than I am, especially with bigger medical issues, and hopefully they will be able to give you an idea as to what might be going on. Sherry , katt, Heather , unclejoe .

[FireAngel]

Hi there, I'm sorry you are having a tough time of it right now. It is possible that once the Des was implanted for the adreneal that his insulinoma symptoms have re-appeared. Ofyen adreneal does a good job of hiding inulinoma as it raises blood sugars and once you notice adreneal symptoms and treat that the insulinoma can no longer hide itself.
Praying for you guys that it is not another blockage. Do you feed egg at all?

[cupcake]

Thank you so much everyone for helping me out. At this point thoughts and prayers are everything we need at the moment.
Xrays showed that his stomach is not draining and is just huge, filling his whole belly cavity at the moment:(
There seems to be blockages or inflammation of some sort and is currently in surgery to see if they can find what's going on.

And no I do not feed him eggs. I read something about feeding eggs last night while deep into good searching what could be going on. I was so young and dumb when I got my boys I just assumed the stuff marketed for ferret by the ferret people would be good for them. As we have battled the various illnesses and cancers I have come to despise Marshall and most cooperate pet stores for the crap they let me give them. It's been a learning curve to say the least. I'm just sorry that my boys had to be apart of it.

[LindaM]

We will pray for your little one and that his surgery will be successful. Stay strong and keep faith!

We've all had to go through learning the hard way that many of these pet companies are solely out there to make money, and how do they do it? By making you think you're doing the best you can for your pet while their products are silently destroying your pet and serving their purpose of preparing you to spend more and more money on them by getting yet another pet, over and over. It's a horrible, sick cycle and they have no excuse for it.

Giving your ferret 1 raw chicken egg weekly, and double the amount during the shedding season, can really help work to prevent hairballs. The lecithin found inside the yolk works to break down the fats that bind the hairs together in their intestines and allows their bodies to pass them, instead of them clumping up into a life-threatening blockage. It can be a little bit of work to get an older ferret used to the idea of raw eggs, but you can use the Grab'n'Dab method (grabbing your ferret and dabbing a bit of it against their mouth/nose/gums) to get them used to the taste over a period of time, this will eventually get them to lick from your fingers or a spoon and then finally by the bowl itself. It just takes a little patience and persistence.

[Heather]

I'm sorry that your wee one is having surgery for a blockage. Fingers are crossed that it was caught in time and you can now go forward. I will light a healing candle for your little one. Please keep us posted
ciao

[unclejoe]

Hi there. I hope your little one is ok.
We have used anesthesia for des implants because the are just so big they just have to be painful. The only time Poppy ever bit a human was when the vet injected her implant and she bit her good. It's just a little gas a a quick recovery.   Our vet doesn't charge for the gas or injection.

[LindaM]

Any update? How did the surgery go, and how is your wee fuzzy doing? I pray that things will have gone well for him.

[cupcake]

Update: sorry it took so long things have been crazy with my little guy.
The surgery went great and he's good as new and frolics around as if nothing ever happened. They removed 2 hairballs from his stomach and one from his small intestine that was causing a total blockage.
Thank you so much for the info about the eggs!I'm absolutely gonna have to start giving him raw egg each week. This is the 2nd time in 3years he has had massive hair balls removed!I started giving him a dab of fish oil each night after the first one but apperently it's not doing what I hoped it would.

[LindaM]

Salmon oil can help a little bit, but there's a limit of 1tsp per ferret, per week. More than that can upset their stomachs and lead to very wet poops. The raw egg will help so much better, since it can specifically target the fats that bind the hairs into a blockage[, and it will be yummy once he gets used to it. You can even add a small dash of salmon oil in with the egg to encourage him to taste it.

Make sure to frequently wash his bedding, we wash once a week, and often I'll run a lint roller over stray hairs that continued to stick after the washing machine and dryer is done with it. This helps lower the amount of hairs from outside sources. During shedding time, you can also brush daily to help remove loose hairs and make it less likely to swallow many of them when grooming themselves.

I'm so glad your wee one is alright now though, blockages are a nasty, life-threatening and wallet munching business. And this is a key example to others over just how dangerous and nasty hairballs end up in ferrets, since there is still a lot of misinformation out there, but hearing others' experiences can help educate people. That said, I hope your wee one will not need to go through anything like that again. Thank you for being an on-the-ball parent to your fuzzies and doing what you can to get things figured out and help your ferret when they are in need.