Sick!

First things first: We named our little girl Cocoa. We were trying to come up with a name that ended with a "T" like Garret and Rocket, but all we could come up with was Cricket (She does kind of look like a little black cricket when she's hopping around the room...). We decided we like Cocoa way better than Cricket, so Cocoa it is!

AND:
So I went to let the ferrets out to play on Wednesday morning and find Rocket not interested in getting out. At all. Which is very abnormal for him! He always wants to play! He wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink, was super hot but couldn't stop shivering (fever?), had glazed eyes, and just wanted to sleep. And there's this green slimy stuff in their litter box. I was so scared! My ferret could be dying!!! So, I did what I always do when something goes wrong: I cried. And then I started researching. And found out about ECE.

So, ferrets get this disease called "epizootic catarrhal enteritis" (ECE for short), also called "the greenies" sometimes. It's characterized by green slimy stinky diarrhea. Apparently, most are exposed to it when they are kits (babies) and don't really exhibit many symptoms. But later in life, if they get stressed (like meet a new baby ferret maybe?) they can re-develop it. Or if they weren't ever exposed to it as kits, they can get it from other contaminated ferrets later.
When they get this disease, they seem to lose all interest in eating or drinking. They have no energy, get cold or hot, and sleep a lot. If left untreated, ferrets can die of dehydration in about 24-48 hours. Once the green diarrhea passes, they start having "birdseedy" poop (golden poop with birdseed looking things in it), which seems to mean that their food is not digesting and they are using their stored fat. Eeewww.... There is somewhere between 1-2 % and 5% fatality, depending on where you find your info. It can linger for like 2 weeks! Once they have it they can be carriers for an unknown amount of time, possibly up to 12 months!
Treatment involves pumping fluids, like water and pedialite, into the ferret, either through an IV or force-feeding; forcing them to eat soft food, like baby food or something called "duck soup"; and possibly antibiotics to combat the other diseases that might possibly be coming (ECE seems to lower their immune systems and make them more susceptible to other diseases like the flu or a cold).

So, I put Rocket in his own cage, so Garret would stop sniffing him and nudging him to get up (which really is kind of cute...), and he could rest easier. I went and bought some pedialite, an eye dropper, and some chicken flavored baby food.
I proceeded to force Rocket to drink water, with the eye dropper. He would NOT have anything to do with the pedialite. I could even dripple it into his mouth, like the water, and he'd spew it everywhere! I tried everything! He would eat a little of the baby food, but not much, and by bedtime Wednesday night he was even more dehydrated than he was earlier that day, despite my best efforts! And he still wouldn't eat anything. I could even smear the baby food in his mouth -- the way everything says to do, and he just gags it back out! He won't swallow! Grrr!!! So I cried again and went to bed, praying he'd be alive in the morning.
I woke up in the night and decided to check on him. He was worse still, so I seriously started forcing him to eat. He was weak enough that he'd swallow whatever I got into his mouth. (Finally! My little Snake-face will eat and drink!) Thursday morning, his fever seemed to have broken and he was ready to fight the food again. By Thursday afternoon, he had progressed from "green slime" to "birdseed poop"... I guess that's good? Right? I hope...
Last night he played for like 1 hour! Yay! (Which really is pitiful, because he can usually play for like 6 hours without getting tired...) And he was eating and drinking on his own! YAY!!!! I'm still going to force feed him until his poop gets completely back to normal and he regains some of the weight he lost, but he seems to be on the mend! He's lost about 1/2 of his total like 2 1/2 pounds... But I don't have a scale that will measure that little, so I don't know for sure...

Ok, so my week so far has went like this: We got our new ferret on Monday night. I introduced the ferrets to each other Tuesday morning and let them play a little. Wednesday morning Rocket was sick. Wednesday night he seemed to be worse. Thursday morning he was a little better. Thursday night he seems to be on the mend. Friday it looks like Garret might be getting sick now...great...wonderful...NO!...Yuck!

Cocoa on the other hand, seems to feel fine!

And just so I'm prepared in case they get sick again later, I'm going to teach them to like baby food (none of them will even touch it!) and pedialite (Cocoa likes it! She seems to think it's yummy!). When we got Rocket and Garret I read that it's important to teach them to eat the baby food when they feel good, so it's easier to get them to eat it sick, but I didn't have the heart to force feed them something gross when they felt good! I will now!!! Lesson learned!


Whew what a week!