Ferrets death

Question
My ferret Shady was about 3yrs old. About a month ago I received a ferret thru craigslist, named Prada. Constantly over the month prada would nip at shady and shady would make a crying noise, not excited, crying noise. Her tail would puff up and she often run back to her cage to hide.

Shady was in good health from what I knew, drank and ate regularly, played, very energetic. Just this morning I was wondering why she was not coming out of her cage, sure enough she was dead in her hammock.

I did take a quick look and found no cuts or anything on her. Please let me know the next step to take in possibly finding out what happened.

Answer
Hi Chris:

WOW, that's a difficult one to take. I'm so very sorry for you.  Age 3 is very very young to die. I can only imagine how frustrated you are right now.

Wrap Shady's body well plastic wrap, then in a little blanket and place her in the refrigerator until you can get her the your vet first thing on Monday morning and request a necropsy to determine the cause of death.

This is a very difficult thing to do, I understand that. If you want to find out what happened to her, it's what you must do, however. This preserves the body the best way so that the vet can do a thorough exam on Monday.

After you have done that, please go to one of these websites and meet up with some very compassionate and wonderful folks who have lost loving pets also.  They have wonderful ideas for paying tribute to our loved little ones and they are a wonderful 'soft place to fall'.

LIGHT A CANDLE IN MEMORY OR IN PRAYER:  
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/enter.cfm?l=eng

MONDAY NIGHT CANDLE LIGHTING CEREMONY -
Online Tributes /Support
http://petloss.com

RAINBOW BRIDGE POEM:
http://rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm

GRIEF SUPPORT / CHAT:
http://rainbowsbridge.com/Grief_Support_Center/Grief_Support_Home.htm

People come and go on all those websites all thru the day and night.

Last of all, please don't blame yourself or Prada - she may well be as shocked as you are and need your extra hugs right now.  It's very possible that Shady was already ill, which would explain her cries instead of being happy when she got a new little sister.  If she was eating, drinking and playing, there was NO way you could have known anything was wrong - those are the things we watch for to know if our babies are well - so PLEASE, you can't blame yourself for this.  Things happen.......maybe something was going on inside her and it was just her time to go.

God bless.  I will keep you and your babies in my thoughts and prayers. Please don't hesitate to write again if you need to. There is no worse pain than losing one of our babies unexpectedly. Be gentle with yourself; this is just going to be very very difficult for a while.  Perhaps after you get the results of the necropsy you can at least have some closure and lay her to rest (or have her cremated)...you do need to be thinking about what you ultimately want done with her little body, so you know what to tell the vet on Monday.  

((((((((((((HUGS))))))))))))

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers