Just lost my ferret

Question
Hi there. I had to put my ferret, Zodiac, down this past Monday. I was devastated.
It all started 2 days after I had brought her home. She got stuck in our couch and had passed out. By the time we got o the vet, she was sniffing and being a monkey. The vet said she would be ok.
Last Tuesday, I found her hyper ventalating at the bottom of her cage. It was very similar to the way she was when pulled out of the couch. Again we rushed her to the vet and again the vet said she would be ok. They also suggested to get her tested for seizures and what not.
Then, last Friday, I came home from work to find her with a bloody nose and paralyzed in her hind legs. I took her to an emergency vet the next day to get an Xray and checked out. They said nothing was broken and she may have swelling near her spine or a spinal disease. They said to take her home and make her comfortable. I did.
On the Saturday she seemed to be improving. She could stretch her legs but still could not use them. Plus she had lost control of her bladder.
By Monday, she was terrible. She was sluggish and was just going to the bathroom all over the cage. I called my vet and they told me that the emergency vet said she should be put down. I brought her in and watched my little angel make her way to ferretheaven.

Sorry if that story was long. My Question is, have you ever heard of these symptoms before?

My next question is concerning getting a new one. The store will give me a new one, free of charge, but they wont give my money back. I don't know if I want to go throught that pain again. I did love the company though and playing with my ferret. What do you think? If I dont get another one, should I just move on and not try to get my money back?

Answer
Hi Belinda:

I am so very sorry you have been through all this!  What a horrible experience for ANY ferret owner, but a first time owner, that's the stuff nightmares are made of!  I have never heard of this particular set of symptoms together, so I suspect that she had *some* type of injury when she was squished in the couch that either deprived her brain of oxygen and caused brain trauma which resulted in the symptoms, OR a spinal injury that resulted in the neurological symptoms your described. Either way, the chances of you seeing it again with another ferret I would say are virtually impossible.

I'm not sure what to recommend as far as getting another ferret. *Most* people who get ferrets find out after having them a short time that a ferret is actually *not* the pet for them. Ferrets require at least 3 hours a day of ONE ON ONE time with their person. They need undivided attention, talking to them, scooping their litterbox morning AND night, change their hammock/linens twice a week, fresh food and water twice a day AND ferretproofing often means either modifying existing furniture such as taking legs off couches or even getting new furniture that is safe around ferrets (NO recliners, hide-a-beds or rocking chairs). Having ferrets IS demanding; it does require a lot more than any other pet.  Dogs are easy, cats are easy, even guinea pigs, hamsters, birds and fish are easy....but ferrets just are not.

I think the best thing - what I would recommend - would be for you to read a book called FERRETS FOR DUMMIES by Kim Schilling - it's a great book for ALL ferret owners. Should be required reading before people bring a ferret into their homes IMHO.  When you finish reading that, you will KNOW if a ferret is the right pet for you or not.  If it is, great. If it is not, then you will have dodged a bullet - that simple. You will have gotten off for ONLY the cost of purchasing the ferret.  Because, please believe me on this - the PURCHASE PRICE of the ferret is *absolutely* the smallest chunk of money you will ever have to dole out for the ferret. Vet bills, etc will all be far far higher than the purchase price was. That's just a very very tiny droplet in a huge ocean of costs.

Please just know that the chances of this happening again would be virtually impossible. I would hate to see you not get a ferret because of fear. But I would hate for you to feel you *must* get one just because you had paid for one. The reason the pet store won't give you money back is that they probably have an "all sales are final" policy and IF a ferret dies shortly after it is sold, the breeder will give the store credit for a dead ferret (i.e. it won't cost the store anything to give you another ferret - that's the bottom line). In other words, the store isn't really offering to do anything out of their pocket when they are offering you a ferret. If you don't get a ferret, you *may* want to ask them if you can get even HALF of the cost of the ferret in OTHER PET SUPPLIES if you decide you don't want to get another ferret.

I certainly wouldn't want to discourage you from getting another ferret though.   Sure wish I knew what to tell you, but only you can make that decision.  Here are a few good ferret websites where you can do some reading and learn more about ferrets.

GENERAL INFO - ALL TOPICS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferret#See_also

http://www.craftycreatures.com/forferretsonly/ferret_school/ferretschool_aboutfe...

http://www.ferretcentral.org  & scroll down to topic necessary

http://www.craftycreatures.com/forferretsonly/ferret_school/ferretschool_aboutfe...

http://www.craftycreatures.com/forferretsonly/ask_angela/index.html

FERRETPROOFING:  
* http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/part2.html#ferretproofing
* http://groups.msn.com/Ferret/yourwebpage10.msnw
* http://groups.msn.com/Ferret/ferretproofing2.msnw

GROUPS ONLINE (USA):
* http://groups.msn.com/FERRET---AlternateMessageBoard/messages.msnw
* http://groups.msn.com/mynorwegianferretfamily/myferretgroup.msnw
* http://www.ferretuniverse.com/
* http://groups.msn.com/ferret/_homepage.msnw?pgmarket=en-us
* http://tinylink.com/?0lOuHXaduw
* http://www.lovingferrets.com/

Good luck on a very difficult decision. Hopefully more information will help you make your decision. Another thing that may help is taking into consideration where you are in life and what is in your future the next six years or so. If you are a young adult getting ready to go to college (where you won't be allowed to take a ferret with you), then you may want to wait until you are settled into your own home as an adult to get a ferret. It is somewhere between difficult and impossible to find a place to rent where they will allow ferrets. Also, time-wise, a year or two years from now - will you be busier?  or will your life be slowing down and you will have lots of time to spend with a ferret.  Remember that for at least the first 2 to3 years the ferret need to be out of the cage and have ONE ON ONE contact with you at least 3 hours a day every day.  Mid-age ferrets need about 2 to 3 hours every day.  Older ferrets can usually do about 1.5 to 2 hours a day. Elderly ferrets need less time, but often have medication schedules that have to be considered; it's not unusual to have to give meds around the clock every four hours, so if you're in college when a ferret is elderly, that's not good either.  Or maybe you're ready to start a family. I never recommend a family with children under age 8 to bring ferrets into the home because the kids just don't understand little critters and how easily they can be injured.

All things to take into consideration. Not sure which ones would apply to you, but hopefully you're at least on the road to thinking in the right lines.  Best of luck - again, I'm so very sorry you've had this experience.  How very very sad.  There is a great website where you can write a few words as a tribute to Zodiac. They have a Monday Night Candle Lighting Ceremony where they honor all pets who have died the previous week too. I hope you'll submit a line or two for Zodiac - it will be kept there forever and ever. My kids who have died are all listed there. The folks are very understanding. Also, there is a chatroom if you need someone to talk to. Here's where you can find it:

http://www.petloss.com

My sympathy in the loss of your little Zodiac. I'm so very sorry this happened to you.  ((((hugs)))

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers