what a start.....

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Kay; Iams, despite the price, is sawdust held together with rancid fat. Stopped going completely putrid by the libaral addition of carcinogenic preservative chemicals. But it's a free world and it's entirely up to others how they slowly kill their 'stock.

 

 

Molecatcher; I've been trying to get my head round this one all night, mate. Terrible thing to be happening and I've honestly never heard of it before. I hoped, if I let it stew, something might break through. Or that someone elses comments would shed light. Nothing.

 

It's most certainly Not Botulism anyway. I ruled that out the moment I read the symptoms. I had a couple of ferrets die of that and it's a vile, protracted, hopeless death, yes. But that's the only similarity. Oh, and mine died in the middle of a harsh and freezing winter. They'd all fared perfectly well through the summers, as ferrets always have when looked after and fed correctly. Given meat, as usual, but only after the sun had gone down and the flies and heat were off. Then, one meal of 'bad' commercially packed stuff and Bang.

 

Anyway. Cold bodies? That suggests their body heat's gone somewhere. And, in warm weather, the place that body heat would most likely go is to their cores, to protect and bolster failing vital organs. So that, incredible as it may seem, points toward heat exhaustion.

 

But then, it wasn't anything like an exceptionally hot day here today. You haven't mentioned it was sweltering where you are? It just doesn't sit right with me. How does todays scenario compare to five years ago? Any pointers there?

 

And what the hell are those fleas all about?! Fleas appearing on dying ferrets? Fleas don't just materialise out of thin air. They come from places and come with and for reasons. So what drew fleas like a magnet to your sick ferrets? I'm sorry mate; I really haven't got a clue! Fleas feed on blood, obviously. So what made those particular ferrets blood more attractive than the others ye speak of? It just gets more mysterious.

 

Sorry mate. Not being a great deal of help here, am I? Just thinking out loud really. Shit normal? So they ate normal and all that went alright. Further indicator against Botulism, as it happens. Not of the guts then, basicly?

 

Back to blood. Blood feeds those vital organs. The one's I suspect were in free fall. That'd explain the shaking and cold bodiedness. So what was wrong with their blood that it crashed - potentially - their vital organs? I don't know. But it seems to have made them magnetic to blood sucking fleas.

 

Blood trouble? Food ruled out? Shaded area? Know what's banging on my mind here, mate? Mosquitoe's.

 

[lorelei0922 2]

if you're interested in supplimenting them with dry food for the hot months why not consider a ferret food ? James Wellbeloved does a good one as does Chudley's and Excel but be warned that the Excel food has been suspected of causing some bladder problems though this has not been substatiated...

 

another choice might be to continue feeding raw (which we know is best for them ) but clean out the cages a lil more thoroughly and discard anything that isn't eaten while fresh... could also gasp shock i know its spoiling them... cook what you give them as it will last a lil longer.. but all in all i think just giving those hidey holes a good clean every day.. even twice a day would keep their fresh raw diet healthy.

 

The big thing to look at in Cat food is a high protein content, you'll find it best in the higher priced kitten or cat food. Mostly specialty stuff.. stay away from anything that has grains high in the ingredient list as it tends to bloat their stomachs and cause other problems.

[mole catcher 1]

DITCH. After a bad nights sleep i woke and first thing i did was check the remaining ferrets, all well and full of beans as normal. couldnt sleep as this episode was on my mind all night thinking what it was and could it have been something ive done or havnt done so to speak. Ive had livestock all my life so ive seen my fair share of death and destruction so to speak, hell try working on a sheep farm with 1800 head of sheep.

After the suggestion of mozzie bites ive done the grusome thing of digging up their bodys this morning and gone over them with a fine tooth comb looking for mozie bites. There was nothing i could see, maybe the bites are so small ????

After i found this yesterday i gave the whole quaters a very good scrub in disinfectant and changed all bottles, bedding and saw dust.

to give you a better idea of how there kept housing wise, their sleeping quaters are a boxed area of about 4ft x 4ft with a run of 6ft x 4ft x 4ft on 2 levels with climbing trees to keep them active. This is for the 6 jills with the hob being on his own above in a large hutch. theres plenty of air and shade within this set up and at no time in the day is it in direct sunlight so like you say ditch, why the symptoms of heat exhaustion? theres plenty of fresh water also, 4 large bottles for ther 6 jills, 1 large bottle for the hob.

 

Maybe a shot in the dark but i did notice a fair sized spiders web in the top corner, does anyone know if a bite from a sider has or would kill a ferret if it had a reaction to it? like i said a shot in the dark and not a flight of fancy.

 

Both jills are from the same home bred litter and were 3 yrs old and like all my ferrets, none have ever been fed on butchers meat or comercialy farmed meat, as i believe all the anti biotics and meat producing hormones are bad for them.

[Tikka T3 0]

hi

 

i agree it sounds like botulism .i lost a hob a few weeks ago ,they go down hill so quick with this and theres lttle that can be done,you did the right thing by putting them down ,its a shame though

was there ant stored meat food ?

regards t3

[ferret15 0]

i think ditch has uncovered the reason either organ failure brought on by heat exhaustion or just organ failure. i too thought of heat exhaustion but then i thought how old were they? were they from the same line as the ones five years ago ? could it of been just organ failure you say their breathing was labored so it was fighting for it life if it wasn't heat exhaustion i would be inclined to think it was some kind of internal failure.(if from the same line as before it may hereditary)

as for the fleas, fleas desert a dying body is it possible they had fleas you were unaware of until they started deserting the body an animal has to have a really bad case of fleas for you to notice them (maybe try the kitchen roll test that ferretlove mentioned on another thread to check the rest either way i dont think it was the fleas that did it.

if you really want to know maybe you could get an autopsy done but i am thinking organ failure (different animal altogether but i had a horse that had kidney failure it came on suddenly and i had him put to sleep by the end of the day!)he displayed the same symptoms cold and almost stiff, shallow breathing etc... his was through old age he was 34 ) this is just my thoughts on this.

 

im sorry for your loss and hope the other remain fit and healthy

[mole catcher 1]

T3... as i said before, this time of year i feed dry food any the meat i feed is done in the following manner.

I place a small piece of meat in their carrying box then put 2 ferets in at a time, leave for 5 mins and whats not eaten is binned. i do this with all of them as i hate flys with a passion.

AT NO TIME IS MEAT PLACED WITHIN THEIR QUATERS SO AT NO TIME WILL THEY COME INTO CONTACT WITH WARM UNCOOKED MEAT OR THAT WHICH HAS BEEN LAYING AROUND.

 

Sorry to hear you have also lost your hob

this is why its a little perplexing

Edited September 10, 2007 by mole catcher

[mole catcher 1]

i too thought of heat exhaustion but then i thought how old were they? were they from the same line as the ones five years ago ? as for the fleas, fleas desert a dying body is it possible they had fleas you were unaware of until they started deserting the body :

 

 

Ferret15, i dont think it was heat exhaustion, plenty of water, plenty of moving air within their quaters, as for fleas and not noticing them, well their both albino jills and seeing as i handled them less than 5 hours before hand im sure i would have noticed. I make a point of handling my ferrets many times a day, if im not there the 2 boys have them out and play with them all the time. I have a real thing against fleas and this is something i look for each day, as well as regularly bathing the ferrets then i comb them with a fine tooth flea comb.

 

if it was fleas surly there would be some on the others as well?

Edited September 10, 2007 by mole catcher

[woodman 131]

it will not account for the fleas but do your neighbours do any plant spraying?

[Kay 3,709]

Moley were they brought out of season this year ?

[gaz 284]

Had the same prob about 10 years ago m/c losing all my ferrets....... four went down showing similar symptoms as your own although thinking back i dont remember any fleas,just like yourself mate i was puzzled by this and shattered aswell as id had the same line of ferrets for 15 years before.

 

This led me to get a post mortem at the local agriculture college where they suspected they had indused some toxins of some kind,abviously horrified and shocked i spent a fair bit more dosh on a toxiology report as i had to pinpoint where these toxins were coming from!! but although the results came back with a group of possible toxins it couldnt pinpiont the induvidual culprit and was advised by the vets that if i wanted another more specific result done it was going to cost a arm and a leg,so i left it at that as know i knew what had seen them off,ive tried digging out the post mortem result and tox report i got back from the labs but ive had no luck as i could of been a bit more specific,although botulism was ruled out by the results.

 

Now i had to work out as to where my ferrets were coming into contact with poisons of some kind,but i was only taking a stab in the dark for a answer and to this day i never really found out.i have a few motives,firstly at the time where i was staying i used to get nextdoors kids coming about the runs and hutches,more so when i wasnt there as i often discouraged them as nicely as i could that my garden was not a zoo ect and at the end up i had to be more firm with them but i knew they still came by when i wasnt there,i didnt accuse but maybe these kids fed or sprayed something towards the ferrets resulting in poisoning them ?.Another motive could have been where i was working my ferrets as i done a lot of rats at farms ect but no poisons were admited of being used ? even out rabbiting could have resulted piosoned ferrets as you just dont know what has been put down on the ground before hand...........could these be something to think about mate ? something else to think about although i ruled it out with my own,have you recently treated your hutches ect with a creosote,paint ect ? just a stab in the dark mate.Anyway mate i can sympathize with how your feeling just now ,hopefully your others will be ok m/c,all the best gary

[mole catcher 1]

FERRETLOVE, yep all jills were brought out of season this yr

 

WOODMAN, just been round the neighbours and no they havnt done any spraying or anything and to think of it their hutch is a fair distance from their garden but like you say, it could have been that.

 

GAZ, they havnt been out since last season so its nothing from working such as poison, unles some feckers been in and i dont know about it but i doubt it. this hutch was made from new wood over 2 years ago that i treated then, hasnt been touched since then.

 

I know ferrets have a way of being fine one moment then turning up their clogs the next, who knows what it was that caused it but im puzzled

 

im just hoping the rest stay as they are, plenty of life and energy. if anything comes to mind i will let you all know. Thanks for all your opinions thus far

[Kay 3,709]

Its a strange one its the not knowing what has caused it

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Cracked It!!! Get rid of the f*cking spider, man! Read This! Moler, I swear on my Dogs lives, all the time I was reading, writing and thinking last night, in the back of my mind I was Screaming; " Ye need Pat Burns on this one. One of his Dogs had a spider bite and he had to dunk her in the river ..... because ..... and ..... Damnit. What was it that didn't make sense with his Dog?! " And I was dead tired and just couldn't put my finger on it. Now I'm rested and alert and have just ransacked Pat's Blog and refound the piece.

 

It's one of the best reads I've ever had from Pat. It's also spookily timely that the Dog involved later died ~ one year ago to the day of his last entry. Just about when ye ferrets succummed.

 

Ye don't have Black Widow spiders in uk. But read that story, in it's entirety and then I defy ye to try and look me in the eye and tell me straight that ye don't reckon it was a bite from that spider in their hutch.

 

Sorry, mate. It was the spider.

 

 

Un F*cking Believable!

[mole catcher 1]

DITCH, if your right and my susspicions about this bloody spider are correct i think we may have cracked it.

as for that spider........... if he were in that hutch when i spreyed it and cleaned it out with disenfectant than it is no more.

 

just seems strange a spider bite can kill 2 fully grown ferrets? i dont know im not a vet.

 

I think once the heat has gone and the sun has gone a little i will remove the ferrets again and have a better look, shave them if need be. I know this sounds repugnant to many but at least i will know in my own mind what the possible cause of death could have been.

I will let you know what, if anything i find.

[anita&paul 0]

Funny you should say that ds, a friend of ours got bitten on the ankle by a spider xmas time and ended up in hospital for over two weeks, on a drip etc. her ankle and foot trebled its size. is it our weather now over here getting more potent spiders?

 

regards

nita and paul