They can go so fast, I thought Josie would make it

[silentdook]

My ferret fam, I am so brokenhearted. My beautiful Josie, my profile girly, only 4 years old, died at the vet on Wednesday.
On Tuesday morning, she was fine, bouncing around, vying for the salmon oil dropper, playing.
I noticed her sleeping by the food in the afternoon and thought it was strange, but put her in the bed with the others, it was a hot day, maybe she's been in the window by the door.
That evening, she looked "off".. didn't get up to greet me, so I checked her all over and decided to take her in the next morning. The next morning, she looked awful, droopy, had messed herself with runny diarrhea, and tried to crawl to me as I approached her. Her glucose was low, she was dehydrated, so I called the vet on our way in. They had me leave her, gave her fluids and such, and called me later to say she was doing better and they would do a CBC. I told them to go ahead and keep her for anything needed, they wanted to keep her overnight since they couldn't find anything obvious, no blockage, infection, etc.
At 4pm, I got another call. Despite rallying enough to get a partial CBC, and looking better, she suddenly expired in the ICU.
I asked for a necropsy. She had blood in her abdomen and a congested GI tract, vet said could be a clotting disorder, rodenticide exposure, septicemia cascade? No way to know more.
I can't even imagine how rodenticide could happen, we don't use it. So, it's a mystery. She was one of our youngest and the one who made my spouse, who had never had a ferret, fall in love with them. "His" girl, Jessie, about same age, is missing her. They've all been able to say goodbye, since the vet did a cosmetic necropsy. I'm scared it's something environmental, by coincidence, I bled profusely from a tiny scrape the same day, which never happens.
Fly high, my beautiful floofy girl. I wish we knew what happened. I opened a new bag of Ultimate Protein to mix and none of the others will touch it. Another coincidence? Or me just grasping for answers, more likely. But I'm discarding it, just to be safe, since she first appeared off by that food bowl.
I just had to type all this out. I bawled like a baby in the enclosure yesterday, and Jessie and Wyatt, (our blind boy) just sat in my lap, being present while we grieved together. Doc was sleeping. It's weird to be down to 3 now.

[Corvidophile]

I’m sorry to read this, it must be very frightening thinking it could be an environmental factor. I hope you can turn up more answers somehow. Rest In Peace, Josie.

[unclejoe]

I'm very sorry you lost Josie so quickly, at all. I hope you find an answer. I would have kept the food and contacted the manufacturer. I don't know what could cause such a condition so suddenly and I've not seen it reported on this forum in over 10 years I've been here but not every ferret is necropsied. 

DIP Josie. You were much loved and you made your hoomans very happy.

[silentdook]

Aug 7, 2022 19:29:26 GMT -5 Corvidophile said:

I’m sorry to read this, it must be very frightening thinking it could be an environmental factor. I hope you can turn up more answers somehow. Rest In Peace, Josie.

Thank you so much. I have read and read and checked everything in the house, but I guess it was just "something wrong" with her that we'll never know.

[silentdook]

Aug 7, 2022 20:23:03 GMT -5 unclejoe said:

I'm very sorry you lost Josie so quickly, at all. I hope you find an answer. I would have kept the food and contacted the manufacturer. I don't know what could cause such a condition so suddenly and I've not seen it reported on this forum in over 10 years I've been here but not every ferret is necropsied. 

DIP Josie. You were much loved and you made your hoomans very happy.

Thank you so much. I do have the bag of food and I did submit a report on the website. I've never heard of it before either, the blood in her abdomen and such. Everything else in her system was unremarkable, just her GI tract. But it could also have been something going on in her liver that's unseen. I'm sad she died in a little cage at the vet

[Sherry Stone]

I am so very sorry It is so devastating to lose one, let alone so suddenly and not know the reason why.

[Charlie]

So very sorry for your loss. She was so cute. DIP little Josie. You will be missed by your family. Could she have fallen from a height and had internal injury?

[silentdook]

Aug 9, 2022 22:32:57 GMT -5 Charlie said:

So very sorry for your loss. She was so cute. DIP little Josie. You will be missed by your family. Could she have fallen from a height and had internal injury?

Hi Charlie, yes, she was a very pretty girl, with the lushest coat I've ever seen outside of Angoras, and very sweet. The vet didn't see any signs of injury, and she was never much of a climber. Everything her vet saw in the necropsy was throughout her GI tract, nothing else was abnormal. She didn't send anything out or do further testing, though, which I'm a bit disappointed about because it might have led to an answer about a systemic issue. Or again, it may have just been further expense without any further clues.

[abbeytheferret6]

I have not been on forum much lately---having problems trying to sell our home, but want you to know that I am sorry your little one passed away. DIP sweet Josie.

[lumboo]

I am so very sorry to read this. Huge hugs to you and your husband, Jessie and Wyatt for the loss of beloved Josie. Its really awful and I had tears in my eyes just reading it

Keep dookin' at the Rainbow Bridge Josie!

Huge hugs xxx

[Thérèse]

Condolences on the passing of Josie. It is very hard to lose a ferret suddenly but even harder when you have no answers as to what happened.

I have ummed and ahhed over whether to include this story and eventually decided to share it and hope it helps although it too, contains no answers. This happened over 15 years ago and you should read to the end to ensure you don't panic over the start of the story.

This was back when the Ferret Society of Canberra was still active. 6 ferrets were rescued from a bad situation. They were all related and had been kept in a tiny cage, never handled, food erratically thrown in the cage, which was outdoors and never cleaned. They were cleaned, given vaccinations, vetted and begun to be handled and taught that food would now be a regular thing and they didn't have to fight over every scrap. 7 ferrets are a lot. To expect one person to take on all 6 was unfair. The 2 main people involved in the rescue side of FSOC were discussing how best to arrange their care and I said I could take 1 to help out (I already had a dog, a cat and 3 ferrets). Suddenly there were2 of these rescues in a carrier for me to take (bringing me to 8 animals). I agreed to take on the 2 on the understanding that they were fosters only and that once they were settled new homes would be found.

I could only tell them apart because one had a shaved front leg for some extra vetting he required because they were both albinos. A little later in the week I noticed one of them doing this weird kind of shake thing. I had been updating the FSOC rescuers and mentioned I thought he might be having a minor seizure. She told me to keep an eye on him. On Saturday I had taken my dog and ferrets to the Million Paws Walk (a RSPCA event that I used to attend). I had left the fosters at home because they were not in a place to deal with loads of people and dogs. As I was getting ready to leave, my phone started blowing up with calls and texts from the 2 rescue people. 2 of the 6 rescues that were being fostered by someone else were at the vets being monitored with suspected distemper and I was told to cage the 2 I had separately. I explained I was out but would check them out when I got home. The one who had had the suspected mini-seizure was clearly unwell, the other one was fine. My ferrets are not caged and I had to get an old cage out of the garage and set it up. Later that night I got a call saying the ferrets under observation had been put to sleep as the vet felt that they did have distemper. My dog and ferrets were fully vaccinated (although you never know if the vaccination is good until it is tested). I asked what they wanted me to do, because one ferret was clearly unwell, although not distressed, just very lethargic and one was fine. It was now after 10pm on a Saturday night, so no regular vets would be open. We decide unless either became distressed I would leave it til the next day to find a vet. Being a night owl I was up til about 7am the next morning with no change. I went to bed to catch a couple of hours sleep and got back up again about 11am. Even before I got very close to the cage I could tell that the sick one was dead (his brother was standing on him). I checked and he was already cold and stiff. I called the rescue person and told her and also that the other one was still showing no signs of illness. I asked what she wanted me to do with the deceased boy. She said there was no need to get an autopsy because the other 2 were getting one (distemper is on definitively diagnosed by an autopsy). We decided I would bury the one brother and keep an eye on the other. I told her he was no longer a foster, as I wasn't going to build his confidence only to rehome him on his own.

About 6 weeks passed with no sign of illness and he could now be handled without him trying to bite. I was trying to find an opportunity for him to meet other people to see if he only thought he shouldn't bite me or if he knew he shouldn't bite anyone. I wanted to ensure the person understood ferrets so was trying to arrange a playdate with another FSOC member. He had a sudden downturn in health, being almost comatose (again on a weekend, so not easy to find a vet). Another FSOC member came over and gave him some sub-q fluids that picked him up a bit. She had been phoning her family etc. to let them know where she was and had also phoned around and got the vet out in Hall to agree to see him. I knew she was the vet the other 2 had been with and that she had some ferret knowledge (the emergency vet near me is not ferret savvy at all).

Hall is way over the other side of Canberra from Queanbeyan. I had been holding him to reassure him this entire time and did not want to put him in a carrier, so the person who had come over agreed to drive me to Hall, so I could continue to hold him. She was convinced he had distemper and that she saw signs, but the things she was seeing I wasn't and I didn't think it was distemper at all. She was a dog breeder as well as keeping ferrets, dogs do get distemper recover and then get sick again but ferrets just die from it, no recovery. Apart from not seeing the symptoms she saw, it made no sense that he would get distemper this long after any possible exposure to it. We get to Hall and I go in while the other person parks her car. The vet takes his temperature and announces he has distemper. I think there must be something very obvious the vet sees because we have barely got in the door. She tells me he needs to be put to sleep. I know distemper is a horrible death for a ferret, so I agree. After she has put him to sleep, she asks what I want to do with his body, do I want her to dispose of him (the way she said it indicated she didn't want to). I told her I would take him home and bury him with his brother.

When I get home I ring the rescue person and update her on what happened. I start thinking about things. I had thought because the person who came over was parking the car that she had no influence on the vet's diagnosis but I realise she had been on the phone for a while when she made the appointment and that the reason the vet didn't look at him much was not because there was something obvious but because this other woman had already convinced the vet it was distemper and the vet just took her word for it. The rescue person called me back and asked if I could take his body into this other vet for an autopsy. I wanted answers now and agreed. I was very upset that this ferret who had been gypped his whole life, had just had his life stolen from him.

About a week after I had taken his body in for the autopsy I got a bill for it. I had said he was my ferret way back when his brother died, so even though the autopsy was at the request of the FSOC people I just went in and paid it. When I still had heard no results from the autopsy I rang the person who had requested I take him to the vet she uses. She told me she was just about to ring me about the results. Firstly, definitely not distemper. However they could find nothing wrong at all, the only possible cause they considered was some sort of toxic event which had dissipated by the autopsy. This was also considered more likely considering another of the rescued ferrets had presented with poisoning symptoms and died about the same time as my boy. I couldn't work out what poison my boy could have been around and the fact another of the rescues had similar symptoms and had died but was in a completely different environment made me think there was some unknown illness that presented like poisoning (was possibly genetic) that they had both had. Of the 6 rescued, 5 were now dead, the initial 2 put to sleep for distemper, the one that died the same night and did show possible distemper signs and then the 2 that died about 6 weeks later showing signs of toxicity. One remained that had been taken to Perth by the rescue person that lived in Perth but regularly visited the Canberra region (to this day I don't know if that one survived or not). Of the 5 dead, the two I had, 1 was just buried and the other had an autopsy done, the 2 put to sleep for distemper were at one vet for an autopsy and the other one was at a different vet for an autopsy. The 3 that were supposed to get autopsies all got disposed of without the autopsies ( I suspect bills were sent out and the fosterers expected the FSOC to pay but the bills weren't mailed to the FSOC and so the bodies were disposed of, they were at 2 different vets and that is the only thing that makes sense to me).

Anyway after that long and involved tragic tale, I believe while the first 3 may have contracted distemper, the other 2 I believe had some illness that presents like a toxic event and does not show any damage during an autopsy. Your wee one sounds like she may have suffered the same thing, which I suspect is a genetic thing, considering 2 related ferrets succumbed to it around the same time despite being in different environments. I have not heard of anything similar happening again, so I don't believe it is a common illness but rather a genetic anomaly that appears on a rare occasion.

Hope this hasn't distressed you more. You are in my thoughts and I hope your memories of your little girl become treasures that can bring a smile to you without the pain of your sudden loss.

[silentdook]

Hi again, I apologize for being away so long after all of your very kind posts. The tale of the poor little dead ferrets didn't disturb me at all, these things happen. I have read of zinc poisoning from powder coating, if the ferrets were licking it.

I've done quite a bit of checking and found a description of results post-mortem that absolutely match the findings of the necropsy.
Unfortunately, I now can't find the article, that's what I get for staying up late reading.

[unclejoe]

what could be powder coated that ferts could get to? once it's cured, it should be safe?
there are sooo many hazards that the little fursnakes can encounter before we even know they are hazards. I know this from bitter experience. We do our best, love them and keep on researching.
DIP to all the lost little ones and huggs to their hoomans

[silentdook]

Powder coating is used on some animal cages, and the newest Marshalls play pen, but I haven't had any ferrets lick or chew it.

[silentdook]

Aug 29, 2022 16:59:47 GMT -5 Thérèse said:

  the only possible cause they considered was some sort of toxic event which had dissipated by the autopsy. This was also considered more likely considering another of the rescued ferrets had presented with poisoning symptoms and died about the same time as my boy.