Kits dying and developing deformity

[loulove1 0]

I have lost 4 kits this weekend; they all started off healthy and the best looking kits I’ve seen in a long time.

 

They are now 6 weeks old and I have started to notice they are not developing as normal, by this I mean they are developing what I can only describe as some sort of deformitive disease.

 

The 1st 2 to die became week and I noticed that there spines were becoming curved; this happened very quickly (24-48 hours).

 

 

The other 2 just seemed to drop dead with no visible reason but having spent a long time feeding the others yesterday I have become concerned at there development as they should be more active by this stage but they seem to have started to get what I can only describe as seal leg syndrome on the front legs. By this I mean the front legs on some of the kits (not all) seem to be unusually spread out to the sides, this is making them move around in an unusual way.

 

I think this may be some sort of deformity that has occurred as they are from a silver Jill, the hob was a polecat and they have no relation but have read of the silver strain becoming deformative in the past.

 

I have bread ferrets many times over the years and never come across this, they have water in an easy access bird water feeder and they have had a healthy raw meat diet along with a constant supply of dry food and the odd bit of milk and egg.

 

I am not happy as all had good homes to go to and I am going to have to call all the new owners to give them the bad news this week, I am going to see how they are this afternoon but if I still have concerns I will not be passing on the ones that are still alive.

 

I am sure I read something a long time ago about a similar occurrence in kits but haven’t been able to find anything.

 

Any advice or experiences of the problem welcome.

 

Darren.

[Hob&Jill 258]

I had the exact same thing a couple of years ago in a litter of 8. All looked fine to start with but every day there would be a new one looking bad, they couldnt walk properly and had bent spines. None of mine actually died, i put them all down, it was a horrible experience, even if one or two survived (which i highly doubt they would have) I would question how healthy they really are inside and could never breed from them. The main difference in my case is none of mine died, they actually didnt look like they would have died quickly as in your case, the whole process in mine seemed a bit slower. I believe its called osteo dystraphy.

 

HJ

[johnrthrfrd 223]

had this happen a good few years ago but it happened with 2 litters off un related jills no idea what it is but just started to apear in 1 or 2 then went through the lot ended up culling 19 kits.

[scothunter 12,609]

think the best thing would be to cut your losses mate and cull them,sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.you will never really have faith in them if you keep them.in all probability they will be no good for working and will just make it harder to cull later.theres always next year and there plenty kits around to replenish your stock

Edited June 28, 2010 by scothunter

[Leeview 791]

Whats the jill being fed on?

Y.I.S Leeview

[ferret lady 73]

It sounds as though your kits have developed what is called "Swimmer Syndrome" in dogs, which has been documented in ferrets, as well (See Dr. Lewington's recently revised ferret book). It appears to be the result either of insufficient calcium in the kit's diet or else the kit's inability to utilize it sufficiently. Since it appears to run in families in dogs, it's almost certainly at least partially genetic.

 

At the very least, I'd recommend that none of the kits in the litter are used for breeding, and it would be advisable to remove the parents of the litter from future breeding, as well. I'd also suggest that the breeders of such kits check with each other to see if they have any common background in order to try to pinpoint where it's coming from and avoid such backgrounds in the future.

[Coneytrappr 30]

A real shame mate, but people here are speaking sense. It would be best to remove these animals from your breeding program. Silvers are more likely to have issues with their wee kits, and though breeding silver to silver can have the worst effects, if the other ferret is carrying the silver gene[ but not displaying it], this could account for promlems also.

[lorelei0922 2]

the seal leg and sudden death sound like Osteodystrophy

 

google it for more info

 

a trip to the vet and an adjustment to their diet may save them. it can be corrected if caught in time.

[Jamie m 668]

I have some lightly marked silver kits this year and they are As solid as the others ,although the two silvers in the litter got eye infections before there eyes opend , the others never ,I have seen heavily marked silver kits young ones and they didn't seem as strong there bones seemed a lot thiner .but the light silver strain I have which gave come from a friends stock bar the eye infections seem solid to me , so is it possible with silvers the further away you breed them and the lighter they become the healthier the ferrret ,?????? So bews which to me seem silvers with no silver would be a good strain

[loulove1 0]

Thanks everyone for your advice, unfortunately I had no choice but to put the Kits down last night. When I went out to them they had all got considerably worse and another had died in the nest. One of the hardest things I have had to do. Killing something you love is extremely difficult.

 

I don’t breed continuously and all these Kits had good homes to go to, they had been well handled by me and my daughter and were real good looking kits. I have gained a lot of experience with kits over the years and have always had good healthy kits that have lived for many years but never experienced this before.

 

I don’t believe a trip to the vet would have saved them at this stage, it attacked them very quickly and they were at a stage of no return I am afraid. I am going to investigate the condition and should I ever experience it again I will know what the signs are and be able to react a lot quicker.

 

There diet was second to none and consisted of raw meat in the form of fresh mince, Hole chicken, chicken wings, beef pieces, liver (only once a week and not there hole meal) constant dried food in the cage, fresh water, milk with a splash of egg and olive oil (not every day as can be to rich and give them the runs). This diet has never caused this in any of my other kits but if anyone believes that anything I had given them may have had an effect then comments and advice welcome.

 

I am not planning on breeding from the Jill’s again; they are mother and daughter and had a litter from each by the same hob (not related in any way). So I guess if genetic it could be from the Hob or be in both the Jill’s and I won’t be breeding any of them so I will never know.

 

I now have to contact all the new owners to inform them of the sad news.

 

A couple of pictures of the kits.

 

 

 

Thanks Darren

[clabby 14]

Thanks everyone for your advice, unfortunately I had no choice but to put the Kits down last night. When I went out to them they had all got considerably worse and another had died in the nest. One of the hardest things I have had to do. Killing something you love is extremely difficult.

 

I don’t breed continuously and all these Kits had good homes to go to, they had been well handled by me and my daughter and were real good looking kits. I have gained a lot of experience with kits over the years and have always had good healthy kits that have lived for many years but never experienced this before.

 

I don’t believe a trip to the vet would have saved them at this stage, it attacked them very quickly and they were at a stage of no return I am afraid. I am going to investigate the condition and should I ever experience it again I will know what the signs are and be able to react a lot quicker.

 

There diet was second to none and consisted of raw meat in the form of fresh mince, Hole chicken, chicken wings, beef pieces, liver (only once a week and not there hole meal) constant dried food in the cage, fresh water, milk with a splash of egg and olive oil (not every day as can be to rich and give them the runs). This diet has never caused this in any of my other kits but if anyone believes that anything I had given them may have had an effect then comments and advice welcome.

 

I am not planning on breeding from the Jill’s again; they are mother and daughter and had a litter from each by the same hob (not related in any way). So I guess if genetic it could be from the Hob or be in both the Jill’s and I won’t be breeding any of them so I will never know.

 

I now have to contact all the new owners to inform them of the sad news.

 

A couple of pictures of the kits.

 

 

 

Thanks Darren

aaa sad to hear that i would of been gutted they were nice looking kits aswell. you done whats was [bANNED TEXT] for them tho i gess

[loulove1 0]

It sounds as though your kits have developed what is called "Swimmer Syndrome" in dogs, which has been documented in ferrets, as well (See Dr. Lewington's recently revised ferret book). It appears to be the result either of insufficient calcium in the kit's diet or else the kit's inability to utilize it sufficiently. Since it appears to run in families in dogs, it's almost certainly at least partially genetic.

 

At the very least, I'd recommend that none of the kits in the litter are used for breeding, and it would be advisable to remove the parents of the litter from future breeding, as well. I'd also suggest that the breeders of such kits check with each other to see if they have any common background in order to try to pinpoint where it's coming from and avoid such backgrounds in the future.

 

 

Having done some research I have come to the conclusion that what you have said above is spot on, I don’t believe I have in any way given them a diet that has primarily caused this but more the case that the gene for this syndrome was present in both sets of kits (due to the same farther crossing with mother and daughter this could just be down to the combination of the genes) but the diet could have been changed at an earlier stage to prevent the damage becoming irreversible. All very well in hind sight you might say but lesson learnt and the book you have told me about sounds like a sound investment for the future. Not all pet owners can become experts in disease and genetics but in this case a little knowledge on the subject a little earlier could have helped.

 

Thank you for your advice.

 

Darren

[The one 8,477]

I had two litters like that years ago and got the lot put down ,The vet reckoned it was because i was feeding them pet dog food mince and there was no roughage ect in it ,Since then any litters ive bred ive feed rabbits from three weeeks of age and never had a problem

[loulove1 0]

I had two litters like that years ago and got the lot put down ,The vet reckoned it was because i was feeding them pet dog food mince and there was no roughage ect in it ,Since then any litters ive bred ive feed rabbits from three weeeks of age and never had a problem

 

 

This would point to it being purely a diet based problem, the kits did not have as much roughage as I would normally give as I am moving shortly and didn’t have much rabbit stocked up for this reason. Having looked into the disease mentioned above it would be genetic and diet only a small contribution towards them getting ill. I have always given mince to kits at the early stage and never had a problem before and this led me to believe it would have to be genetically related.

 

Has any one else who has had this problem given kits mince or butchered meat rather than hole carcass?

[The one 8,477]

I had a litter the year after that andi had them on rabbits from three weeks and by six weeks they where well off the jill and eating two full rabbits a day and i reckon they where the best kitts i every bred