Oh phoo – double phoo! I really didn’t think that my sweet old silvermitt would get insulinoma so soon after Muis but she has. Cr@p!

Before Christmas she had some funny “turns” – she’d walk around and suddenly look like she was lost. Nothing like the dazed look I’ve come to know with insulinoma. Oh no. I honestly thought she had Alzheimers! She’d stand there and look left then right as if to say “Which way I am supposed to go!”

Then on Christmas Eve I had a scare when she had some totally weird breathing problems. She was lying in our bed after having one of her “Alzheimers” confusion sessions earlier and she seemed okay until I heard a really strange noise coming from her.

Her breathing started off slow then got progressively faster then went back to normal and it kept on going like that for a while.

I had her on my chest and was stroking her and when I moved her back onto the bed, my nightie was wet where her mouth had been. Her mouth was open, her lips drawn back and I thought I was looking at her death mask, I really did. I got out of bed, grabbed a towel, put it on the bed between us and put Kahlua on it and I honestly thought that she wasn’t going to be with us for much longer.

The rapid burst of breathing went on for about an hour, then she started making an odd clicking sound. You know you can get those tin clickers out of Christmas crackers or whatever – that was the sound she was making when she was breathing. There’d be 3 or 4 clicks then silence, then 3 or 4 clicks again.

By this time it was close to midnight and she suddenly went all quiet. I felt her stomach and couldn’t feel her breathing so felt her paws and her nose. I turned on the light and saw that her neck was arched, although nothing like Muis’ or Kaos’ necks when they were in their death throes, so despite seeing that and feeling her body and finding it still warm, I had convinced myself she was on death’s door.

At this stage Philip woke up and asked why I was snottering, so I explained that I thought Kahlua was dead. He felt her and said, “No, she’s fine.”

I scowled at him and said, “No way! She’s dying, or dead now!” and he said “Feel her!”

I did and she felt warm and was breathing perfectly normally. Next thing I know she wakes up and wants to get off the bed, so I put her on the floor and she toodled around before climbing into the drawer (of the chest of drawers) and going to sleep.

I was exhausted, I can tell you, and count that night as the worst Christmas Eve I have ever had!

Then on January 2, we were walking out of the kitchen to head for the bedroom and I saw Kahlua lying splat on the floor near the linen cupboard. I spoke to other ferret owners and they all thought it was a heat thing but, although it was warm at the time, I still had my doubts.

Took Kahlua to the vet and she checked her out and said there was nothing she could find and, since I had no definite symptoms, there was basically nothing I could tell her apart from her “odd behaviour”.

THEN it happened.

On Sunday morning (the 10th) I walked into the sitting room and found her lying on Zac’s bed, completely floppy and totally out of it, even though her eyes were open.

I took her into our bedroom and got some Nutrigel, rubbed it on her gums and got a syringe full of smoothy to give her. Well, within a few seconds she was licking the smoothy from the end of the syringe and seemed perfectly fine. I put her down on the bed with the smoothy bowl and although I had to hold her upright, she was licking the liquid up with great gusto.

* sigh *

I called my vet first thing on the Monday morning but she was away till Wednesday and obviously the staff there wouldn’t give Kahlua any prednisone without the vet’s say so.

So there we go … I was totally fooled by Kahlua’s confusion as it was nowhere like CJ’s or Muis’ dazed look. Then the strange breathing session and the way she lay “splat” on the floor – I reckon now that that was a mini-blood sugar drop.

I have a new sig file …”The more I know ferrets, the more I know I don’t know!” and I can’t tell you how true that is.

It’s my 16th year of ferret ownership and I’m still scratching my head wondering if I have it right and am doing the right thing by my babies!

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Filed under: Ferret Illnesses • Ferrets as Pets • Insulinoma in Ferrets

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