what a start.....

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

is it our weather now over here getting more potent spiders?

 

 

Frankly, I very much doubt the weather has anything to do with what spiders ye have, or what they can do. The two things that linked up with me were the fact that Molers ferrets were losing heat to their cores, thus leaving their bodies cold and shivvering? Hypo bloody thermia! Just like Pat's Dog. I'd just been unable, last night, to remember Why he'd dunked her in the river and why he later realised how wrong he'd been to do so.

 

Then, when Mole mentioned the spiders web? I shot straight off and found that story and re read the bit I needed. Identical. Replace Jack Russel with ferret. Black Widow with 'normal' spider? What do ye get? F*cking Result is what.

 

Mate of mine used to be an extremely serious spider man. He'd have known about the abilities of ye native spiders to do harm. They're no way my subject, but I'm sure I read somewhere that ye Do have one that could kill a man. Only it's a rare one to start with and it's a reclusive one. I suspect it might also be said to have a job getting through ye skin, if it wanted to? But the venom, measured and tested, is said to be enough to kill someone. It's a Funnel Web or Trap Door spider of some sort. Something like that.

 

Anyway, we're not spider specialists. Maybe someone here knows more? But work it out; Along with all the other pointers above, if you have one spider capable of dropping a human? How impossible does it sound that ye have some lesser ones every bit as capable of dropping a weasle?

[Madcowz 0]

Firstly let me say how sorry I am for your loss. I have become very attached to my crew in a short space of time and know how much they can mean.

 

On a similar vein to the Spider story....

 

we were waiting for our train to London and then up to Edinburgh to see family & friends. Our station is a rural one and we were the only people there.

 

With 1o minutes before our train was due, a bloke on the other platform shouted over that he had been stung on the head and didn't feel very well.

 

He then started to look a little unsteady and less than 30 seconds later he collapsed, puked, pissed and shat himself and then passed out.

 

Luckily, er indoors is a nurse and used to work in Intensive Care so was quick to help him out while I phoned for an ambulance.

 

The guy came round and with the help of the very fast response form the paramedics was carted away with an ECG and oxygen.

 

Now, after being questioned by the paramedic, he stated that he thought it was a wasp and that he has never had a bad reaction before.

 

So, as with DS's spider theory, if a common insect like a wasp can fell a healthy man, think what it can do to a small animal.

 

Needless to say, we missed our train but as I said to the kids who started to look a bit upset as our train pulled away, it wouldn't have mattered if we had missed the whole holiday as we had helped someone out who was in need.

 

/Mad

[ferret15 0]

i think you may be on to something here foreign spiders can and do survive in this country when my parents returned from oz two years ago with a container full of their worldly possessions (which had been sprayed with pesticide to kill any bugs )it was unloaded put in to removal vans then in to storage while they purchased a new house and then moved to the new house while unpacking the boxes some two months after they arrived in the UK we found about a dozen red back spiders some dead some looking worse for wear and some very healthy ones we killed them all but it shows how easy it is for them to get in to this country.

on another occasion i was unpacking a box of bananas and a huge black spider appeared but i squashed it before i thought about finding out what type it was we even found a praying mantis larvae in the bird millet once.

 

so it may not of been a native spider !

 

well I'm of to de cobweb the garden now

[john b 38]

Did it look like this ?

 

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/in...da-nobilis.html

[waz77 15]

Have a look on here,see if any of these ring a bell http://www.trifl.org/medical.shtml

[rabbit slayer 22]

Very interesting topic. Ive always had spiders and webs in my kennels and thought it was good to have them to catch the flies that are attracted to the dog food. Now that ive read this post im going to clean away all the webs and kill any spiders i see.

 

HAPPY HUNTING

 

RS

[lorelei0922 2]

are there spiders in the UK that are venemous enough to do this kinda damage ? i was sorta under the impression that they were mostly the non venemous sorts here ?

[Guest craftycarper]

Sorry to hear of your loss mate, but i have had exactly the same happen to mine. I am now down to 6 ferts drom 11 over a period of a few months. All the ferts that have died are just over a year old, last years litter including the mother. These have been kept in a seperate swelling from my others since birth, have been fed mainly on rabbit & chick and after a recent outbreak of fleas on my mutts the source being the ferts (the rabbit i had been feeding). I now have a hob & jill left out of this litter, just like yours night before alls fine at feeding time running around like loonies, next morning one dead and so on. On inspection theres absolutely no weight in the midrif. Am now feeding dry food and that bottled cat milk hoping to get some weight back on quickly to the remainder of the litter, so far so good they seem to be filling out in the last day or two, although some people knock feeding chicks what i like about them is theres plenty of fluid in them and they are just the right size for a meal that is usually eaten in one sitting and not hidden.

[mole catcher 1]

Well here goes for what i consider to be the reason for the demise of my 2 ferrets.

 

After digging them up yet again i had a very good close look at them, this included soaking them in water to get the fur to lay flat. after an age looking at them and feeling all over for any swellings i found a small tiny pin head sized puncture wound on each ferret. one on the belly, one on the fore leg of the other. this puncture was surrounded buy a ring like patteren of a bluish colour, in total the size was about 2-3 mm across. Looking through a magnifying glass it was clear to see a defo mark and the ring around it. After looking all over their bodys i found nothing else to suggest that whilst they were buryied something had caused this mark. This leads me to believe that it was indeed a bite from the spider that was in their hutch, of course im not suggesting that i have been visited by some species of arracnid thats not of these shores, but meerly the possibility that the bitten ferrets suffered a reaction to the bite. Now, both jills were of the same litter so had the same genetic make up as each other, could this be why only these 2 had suffered when the other 4 come from a totaly differant gean pool?

 

Of course im not a vet, or a person who has enough of an understanding to say 100% that this was the cause of their death. But it is my opinion that it is more than plausable that this was the case. Sadly no matter how well we care for our stock things just happen, seemingly through no fault of our own. One thing this little episode has taught me is this, from now on any spiders webs seen within their hutch will be removed as soon as i notice them, just in case my surspicions are correct and it was indeed a spider bite that saw my 2 jills off.

 

Regards

 

 

Molecatcher

Edited September 11, 2007 by mole catcher

[john b 38]

MC

 

Did you get chance to look at the link I put up in my earlier post ?

 

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/in...da-nobilis.html

 

Under bite reports:

 

"Two small puncture wounds in the region of the swelling, surrounded by local erythema with small bluish tinge a few hours later"

[TOMO 26,069]

well done jb , very interesting. it sounds like it may wel have been a spider.

 

why didn't you take them to the vets to find out M.C?

 

its intersesting to see that the humans responded to piriton. this is somthing we always have in our house . and i supose you could treat the ferts with it if you were lucky enough to catch it early enough

[mole catcher 1]

TOMO, Like isaid in the thread i have seen this about 5 yrs ago, back then i tried the route down the vets. Loads of money and 18 hours later, dead ferrets. I wonder just how much suffering those ferrets were in within those 18 hours?

this suffering was something i wasnt going to allow these 2 to go through, plus they looked in one hell of a state, in my opinion it was better to end it there and then.

 

 

JB, i have flicked through the link you put up and yes as myself and DS were thinking it looks as if it was a spider bite. this info you have given me to read has also added weight to this.

I will read this again at leasure and take in the facts and keep notes just in case.

 

 

 

MORAL HIGH GROUND. what im about to type ISNT and i repeat ISNT aimed at anyone who has posted a reply to this thread..

I feel that i acted in the best interests of the ferrets in my care, this care extends to the fact i will go out of my way to prevent any harm or suffering from happening to those ferrets in my care. It was my opinion that the suffering that they would have gone through on the journey to the vets and the possible suffering whilst in the vets care was, in my opinion unnesercery. It was my choice to end their suffering, which i did in a humane and fast manner. I dont feel the need to justify my actions and i dont feel my abilitie to look after ferrets is in doubt here.

 

SO, TO THE MORON WHO RANG ME THIS AFTERNOON TO SLAG ME OFF FOR DOING WHAT I THOUGHT WAS BEST, I HAVE THIS TO SAY..... WHEN YOU LEAVE A NASTY MESSAGE ON MY ANSWERPHONE CALLING ME MURDERER UNDERSTAND THIS. REGARDLESS OF HOW YOU SEE ME OR MY ACTIONS I ACTED OUT OF COMPASSION FOR A LIVING ANIMAL, NOT OUT OF BLOOD LUST OR TO INFLATE MY EGO AS YOU PUT IT. AND IF YOU WISH TO CONTACT THE RSPCA AS YOU THREATEND, PLEASE RING ME BACK AND I WILL GLADLY GIVE YOU MY ADDRES SO THEY CAN COME AND INSPECT MY ANIMALS.

[R_Oldroyd 17]

I think it could be BOTULISM too. Pigeons do go off really quickly so i never feed ferrets them.

 

I know about having to clean out old food from the cages but even i sometime miss the odd bit of meat in the cage. So many cages to look in so you can easily miss a bit.

 

I use a torch to check because it dark in the feeding areas.

Regards Roger.

 

Sure that BOTULISM is fast acting with little systems.

[mole catcher 1]

I think it could be BOTULISM too.

 

please read my earlier posts as to the reasons why this cannot be botulism

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Better still; Why not describe, to the house and for the record, the symptoms and terminal effects of Botulism, as whitnessed by yeself.

 

If ye've actually seen it in action and can describe it with any accuracy, it'll make harrowing reading.

 

I know this. Because I've seen it. Pray to ye god that you never do.