Advice needed - Ferret maybe pregnant?

[Deleted]

I had a jill given to me last year who was found in a carpark, orange & in heat. She was very underweight, had a massive flea problem, her teeth were yellow & all in all, not very good. but she was lively & alert. She went to my vet, who didn't feel comfortable to put her under anesthetic , no mention of the jill jab(I've been having memory troubles lately so I've been seeing my own doctor about that) & she recommended I should put her with my hob to bring her out of season, as she'd doubt the jill would conceive a litter but probably go into a false pregnancy.
So I did as such. The hob was a very docile boy & didn't cause damage, a little swelling of the neck but all in all, she was out of heat within about a week & gaining weight well, on a raw diet & generally getting better. She went into moult, all that icky yellow hair falling off & allowing a beautiful white coat to come through & her bug & teeth problems were resolved. She did end up being pregnant, however something went wrong & the kits died inside of her. It turned into an open pyometra with a most revolting discharge seeping from her vulva & her lack of interest in the world. She ended having to undergo surgery in a condition where she only had a 40% survival rate. The vet gave me the option to save some of the kits if they were still alive, but in reality, there was no point saving them if the mother died, as handraising day old kits is extremely difficult, so I simply said "They don't matter, she does, just get rid of the lot & save her".

I now have a spayed albino jill called Honey, & she is sweet as her namesake

[Deleted]

Your vet RECOMMENDED that you put a very poorly in-season jill in with your intact hob? Has anyone else ever experienced this?! I wouldn't put her in with an intact hob anyway because she's still in quarantine and wouldn't want to risk her passing anything on or catching anything and I'm not waiting 14 days for it to be up, but if she's not well enough to go under anaesthetic, then I would definitely not be happy about her possibly risking pregnancy anyway. This just sounds like madness to me. If your vet isn't happy to spay in season, there's always jill jab, implant or vasectomised hob, why on earth would he advise you to try an intact hob first? Is this normal?!?!

[Heather]

How's the wee girlie doing anyway?
ciao

[Deleted]

Still the same, bit nervous of people, but eating, drinking okay etc, and enjoying her play time, vulva is still the same though. Vets tomorrow at 5pm, wish her luck!

[Sherry]

Fingers crossed for the poor thing! And odds of adrenal for a younger intact ferret are pretty low.

[Deleted]

Crossing toes, paws, tails, and fingers! i hope she is OK and even though i would like to see more kit pics, the little one does not seem in condition to have kits so i hope she is not preggos, good luck little girl!
I hope she has a clean bill of health(or at least mostly!) good luck!

[Deleted]

At that stage, the hob had been bred 4 times already & hadn't produced a single litter of kits, so it was assumed he was sterile & so it was an unlikely event, & it'd effectively be putting her with a Vassy. To this day, he has still only produced two litters, both to my own two Albino jills, Honey, whom you already know about, & Vivian, who's litter is beautiful, but he's never gotten another jill pregnant & he's been studded out quite a few times (all to Sables, I think he has a colour preference, I dunno, but 7 females & only 2 litters). It wasn't the fact the jill was in season, I normally ask for the jill jab, however at that time I had utterly forgotten about it until afterwards & kicked myself. I don't even know why my own vet (who is a she, not a he) had forgotten, as she is normally very good with the ferrets, it was her poor condition at the time which my vet doubted she'd surive surgery at all. It was with the best intentions, though that can bring a great many evils, & it was honestly thought the hob was an utterly useless male, except for being a loved pet.

As for quaratine, we need only concern with parasites in Australia, there is such a little occurance of Canine Distemper that it's virtually unheard of in dogs & even less in ferrets (admittedly, got to some places you still get the odd case in dogs every few years, but the last case in my region was about 15 years ago). Worms, fleas, tick, lice & mites, those are aesily remedied after a few days & she had a little roundworm, but that was all & my guys are all wormed once every couple months. We don't have rabies, the closest thing to it is the Lyssa Virus found in bats, but it's not even that common anymore.

[Deleted]

Oh I see, thought it was very unusual to put two potential breeders together when one is very ill. I know how easy it is to lose your mind a little bit when you're at the vets and really worried, so I can understand how you might have forgotten about the jill jab.

Unfortunately Missy is crawling with fleas, mites and possibly other internal parasites, and she may have some sort of vaginal infection as her vulva looks strange, so there's no way I'm letting her anywhere near another ferret until she's all clear. We also have quite a lot of canine distemper in the UK- there was a huge outbreak about 8 months ago, and it wiped out all of the ferrets at several of the large rescues, a lot of breeders and quite a few individuals ferrets. I've just moved here, and I think in this immediete area there haven't been many cases of distemper for a couple of years, but surrounding areas have had loads of outbreaks, but I might be wrong about this immediete area. Either way, it's not worth the risk to either her or the hob. If I put her with a vac hob then he would be distemper vaccinated, so it's possible he could be carrying the virus with no symptoms, it's too dangerous to both of them, so it'll be jill jab for her unless there are are other complications. I'll keep you posted!

Adrenal is much, much less common in the UK because we don't neuter our ferrets at 2-8 weeks old generally (don't let me go off on a little tangent about how much I hate Marshalls), and it's also thought that because they are generally kept outside they can naturally maintain their levels of seratonin and melatonin, unlike ferrets that are exposed to artificial lights, which has been linked to adrenal. This little lady lived the first 18 months of her life in an outdoor hutch, and then the last two months in a house as a pet, so I'm hoping that the odds are in her favour. No hair loss either.

[Heather]

I would think adrenal isn't one of your issues here
ciao

[Deleted]

I agree I don't think so either.

[crazylady]

Hi where was the large outbreak that wiped out a lot of rescues and breeders and when ? I know early last year around 13 died in a rescue from canine distemper ( it was an unfortunate case of them taking in a carrier who passed it on to weak ferrets ) but it did not sweep across the country canine distemper is always present if you walk your ferrets out side your at risk of them getting it even in your own back yard it can be brought in on your shoes or by a passing dog ( all of mine are vaccinated once in there life and my dogs are done ) are they safe from distemper no why simply because distemper vaccines are not a cure they simply mean if they come into contact with distemper there is a slim chance they will recover but it is slim ! ( and the vaccine used in the uk is the cannine distemper vaccine for dogs only its used on ferrets too !) frontline spray for kittens and puppies will take care of her flea and tick / ear mite problem and panicure will clear any intestinal parasites its one dose problem solved ( your vet will tell you dosage by weight ) and for her urinary tract infection most vets prescribe baytril for ten days as its a broad spectrum antibiotic and covers most things ( so what ever else she has going on needing antibiotic baytril will take care of it ) Adrenal is present in the uk it is appearing more and more in ferrets who live indoors as pets and yes in fixed ferrets who were fixed at the age of 6 months plus ( vets in England wont fix a ferret under the age of six months and most make you wait until they have over wintered ) good luck with you baby take care bye for now
Bev

[Deleted]

Just got back from the vets, he said that obviously it's very hard to tell when ferrets are pregnant until they are nearer their due date if you are unsure of their history. He had a feel of her belly and nipples and said that her nipples are definitely swollen and producing a little fluid that normally occurs before she would start lactating, and that he thinks she probably is pregnant or having a psuedopregnancy, and that it's not unheared of for their vulvas to take a while longer to shrink than normal. He was reluctant to give her a jill jab because if she is pregnant it may harm her kits, and wants me to keep a close eye on her instead for signs of anaemia and watch to see if her pregnancy develops. She is a little under the weight that he felt was ideal, but said that she should be capable of carrying kits and nursing successfully as long as she has lots of TLC and good food between now and birthing.

[Deleted]

Hi Bev, the distemper outbreak was Michelle at Wolverhampton, Jules at Chester and the rescue at Chelsford too. As I understand it, someone told me Chester lost nearly all of their ferrets, and a few breeders around their lost theirs too, and there were a lot of reported cases in Wolverhampton unfortunately

We had already treated her mite problem anyway with advocate which will do her for worms etc, we normally use xeno 450 or another ivermectin based one as we seem to have the most success with that, but we went with the advocate for her as there is more research into whether or not it's safe for pregnant jills and kits. As she is urinating as normal without any problem and drinking, it seems unlikely she'll have a urinary infection.

There seems to be a lot of contradictory information available on the distemper vaccinations, I'm well aware that the ones that are administered in the UK are smaller doses of ones formulated for dogs, but I have had different vets tell me different things, some say that it means they have a 99.99% immunity to the virus, others say that it offers very little protection but increases their chances of survival only a slim amount. Either way, every ferret that comes here is vaccinated as soon as it's safe for them to be done, and they are under strict quarantine.

Adrenal disease is becoming more common in the UK because of more ferrets living indoors, but most of the rescues and fosters that I deal with are ex-workers and are kept in hutches outdoors, so it's not something that I've ever had to deal with personally, and it's still nowhere near as prevalent in the UK as the US. Unfortunately I have actually personally spoken to several vets who said they were more than happy to spay/neuter from 12 weeks, so it seems like it's not just Marshall's that are greedy when it comes to getting money as fast as possible


Sorry that post was a bit jumbled, I'm exhausted and can't think straight!

[Heather]

Good luck, feed the wee girlie well. You may want to talk or ask the breeders about supplementation. If she's pregers it will help get her ready and even if she's just in poor condition it will help her. You've done what you can for her up to this point. You didn't get a vaccine did you? If she's pregers, that's probably not a good idea. You actually had some honest vets who understand vaccines. They told you the truth. The distemper vaccine offers a chance and a slim one that is all. It will not protect, it will not stop the disease from happening. It might help the body recognise the disease but it probably won't stop the disease from destroying the ferret
ciao

[Deleted]

No, no treatment or vaccines of any kind, bar the stuff that we have given her for mites/fleas etc, the vet said that it wasn't really safe. Thanks for all of your help guys, I'll pop up a post in the breeders board asking about nutrition.