Ferret is ill!!

Question
1)5-6 yr old small silver female ferret

2)no illness history/disease. she is vaccinated and neutered.

3)she eats a high-quality biscuit food but I've been hand feeding her mainly with creamy chicken baby food with crumbled ferret food in it. I also mix in some malt paste with vitamins etc in it.

4)Nothing wrong with her poop. No blood, not green. Normal brown, etc. Her wee is slightly dark yellow so i know she needs more water for this :)

5)She was with 3 other ferrets. all neutered, 1 male and 2 females. However she is currently living in the house separated from the others.

She is going to the vet very soon, but I thought I'd ask anyway!

I think she was bitten by the male ferret (which is why she won't live with him again-I'm going to separate her when she gets better) as she has a large scab where there was a wound and I have been putting sudocream on it. The scab is black which I assume is the blood and dirt but it's definitely not infected!

However I'm very concerned about the area around the scab. The skin is purple and I assume it's bruising or something like that?? Is it ok or not?

Her bum is a little red but she can go the toilet fine. Is there anything I can do for this??
Could I put the sudocream on it?

Also she has always been skinny but now she's really bony an I can feel her spine and pelvic bones. I've been feeding her (what it says at the top) and I wondered if this had anything to do with her teeth hurting her? There's not much wrong with her teeth though. I don't brush them because I live in England and the pet shops don't sell that kind of stuff. But I'm asking the vet when we go.

Please reply soon!
:)


Answer
Hello Neave,

The purple skin around the wound could be bruising, especially as you suspect the wound was sustained from a bite by another ferret. Another reason for the purple skin might be hair regrowing in the spot around the wound. Ferret skin can sometimes be blue or purple and that usually just means that hair is growing in the area. It usually isn't anything to worry about, but I would definitely run it by the vet, just to be safe!

The boniness you're describing means that your little girl is probably most definitely way too skinny! You should talk to your vet about options that will be higher in calories and protein to help her bulk up!

Is her bum just red or does it look a bit swollen and sort of bulging out? If it is bulging out, that could mean that she has a prolapsed rectum and that can usually be fixed by softening her food with some water. Prolapsed rectums occur when she is pushing too hard to use the bathroom and it most commonly occurs with kits that are switched to hard food too soon. Try offering softened food and if you would like, (and I'm not sure if you this over there, but a similar product would probably work) Preparation H, an inflammatory for hemmorhoids medication, will probably help with her rectum issue! Again, I would talk that over with the vet before you do anything.

I hope this helps you and if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews