Rocket & Peanut

This duo came from Michigan on October 7th, 2006.

A young girl was dissolving her "shelter." She was being evicted from her apartment and needed to rehome several ferrets before moving to California with her boyfriend. (Ferrets are illegal in California. They are confiscated and euthanized.)

Rocket is a sable boy and Peanut is silver. Because Rocket and Peanut are high care insulinomic boys, someone recommended Zoo`s Ferret Sanctuary to her for these two when she saw the girl`s posts on one of the ferret boards.

Rocket and Peanut had some issues with ulcers, but have responded beautifully to treatment. Both are doing well on their meds and have better appetites now. Both are very gentle and have integrated well with the insulinomic group on the Meds Wall. They will be very well cared for and very loved for the rest of their lives.

Our thanks to Dee Gage for doing the transport.

More later.

Love, Zoo

UPDATE: November 27th, 2006

Rocket continued to respond to the ulcer meds and is doing wonderfully now.

Peanut didn`t do so well. He continued to lose weight over a four day period and had no appetite. We saw diarrhea, lethargy, and wound up at the vet again, now suspecting an intestinal blockage. (He had tested negative for parasites.)

The x-ray showed a liver that was 1/3 the size it was supposed to be. Not good. The liver appeared to be failing. Apparently, this may have been a secondary issue--he now tested positive for coccidia--and the vet said he had had it for a while. Apparently, when his first two tests were done he wasn`t shedding eggs and it didn`t show up.

We treated all 65 ferrets as a protective measure and hoped to bring Peanut out of his slump. He really hasn`t been feeling well. Today, one day after the medicne was finished, Peanut`s liver failed completely and we lost him. He was such a beautiful, friendly little boy. Never complained about a thing. Took his meds well, went on the box, and shared his soup with his brother willingly, even though Rocket had just gobbled up a bowl of his own! A peacemaker and a cuddler. This just makes me sick.

To date, no one else has tested positive besides his brother Rocket.

We are very busy doing daily testing now. We have never had this in our room in eight years of sheltering!

If one can learn from a tragedy, it deadens some of the sting. We have always treated the room prophylacticaly, each year, because we have so many here and it was suggested by one of our vets. From this day forward, we will treat all newcomers during quarantine, when we do all the other testing. (Although, it still would have probably been too late for little Peanut.)

We have alerted others who took in some of the ferrets from the same source and advised them to test (again) too.

More later.

Love, Zoo

UPDATE: January 12th, 2007

Rocket seemed to be doing better, then went sharply downhill. He wasn`t eating, the weight dropped off again, and we went to the vet. All tests were normal. He was grieving the loss of his cagemate, Peanut. He could not be comforted.

On December 22nd, 2006, Rocket curled up in his cuddle cup and went to sleep---forever...

The necropsy showed nothing at all. He even tested negative for parasites.

For those of you who think ferrets are just little animals who have no feelings, let me assure you they DO--and they sometimes grieve themselves to death, no matter how hard you try to comfort them.

He was a wonderful boy. I wish both of them had joined us sooner.

More later.

Love, Zoo