Head Tilted to One Side Means......

Question
i wrote to you before concerning my 6/7 year old ferret and the lump on her neck. thankfully it turned out to be nothing serious , although now ive notices that she is walkinf with her head tilted to the left! should I put this down to "old" age or should this be another trip to the vets. The last time i took her to the vets she was pulled around terribly and i dont want her to go through that again , please an answer as soon as your avaliable would be much appreciated. many thanks

Answer
Hi Natasha:

I'm glad the other problem turned out not to be serious. Whenever we see ferrets with their heads tilted to one side, it's almost always either a severe inner ear infection or even possibly a cervical spine (neck) injury, so I'm afraid it will be necessary for you to take her to the vet again.

One thing you might consider, if you are very unhappy with the way your ferret was handled last time is changing vets with hopes of finding one who is a bit more gentle. Usually vets who work with ferrets a lot handle them quite easily and know all kinds of tricks to keep them still (scruffing, ferretone bribes, etc).

I do believe you should get her in as soon as possible before permanent damage is done to her hearing (this may even have been going on before and wasn't detected in the previous visit.  Here is a list of vets all over the place, since I'm not sure where you are, and hopefully you can find your state and city on one of them and give a different vet a try.  If you do change vets, be sure to pick up a copy of your records from the previous vet before the visit and take them with you so the new vet is up to date on everything that has been done so far.

Here is the list:

VETS CANADA:   
* http://www.ferretrescue.ca/start.php
* http://tinylink.com/?TlVyYKa6e0
* http://www.ferrets.org/Veterinarian_Listings.htm   (British Columbia)
* http://www.ferretcentral.org/for-others/db-vets.html

VETS USA:
* http://www.quincyweb.net/quincy/vet.html
* http://ferrethealth.org/vets/
* http://www.ferret-universe.com/vets/vetlist.asp
* http://www.ferretsanctuary.com/vets.shtml
* http://www.ferretcentral.org/for-others/db-vets.html
* http://ferrethealth.org/vets/

VETS  UK & IRELAND:  
* http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ferreter/vetlist.htm

VET INFO/ LIST OF FERRET GROUPS/ CONTACTS IN UK, ITALY, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA, NETHERLANDS, GERMANY & DENMARK:       
* http://www.ferretcentral.org/for-others/db-overseas.html (scroll down page to find the one you are looking for)

Unfortunately, once our ferrets get to about six or seven years old, they do usually have some health problems come up. If we stay on top of them and get treatment as soon as possible, they can usually come thru them just fine....so please don't delay. I will keep your ferret and you in my thoughts and prayers. Let me know what you find out??

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers