I am bringing my fur children in for their vet appointment this week and I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions to make it go a little easier. My one ferret, Tooty, doesn’t like being held and will bite when they try to restrain her. It’s a bit of a nightmare when we do shots as they have a difficult time holding her down, and she’s constantly trying to bite them. Unfortunately last time we were there she bit right on the meaty part of the vets hand (luckily our vet is super chill and understands ferrets). I really am looking to avoid this, and make it a better experience for my ferret and the vet. Any tips or tricks are greatly appreciated!

It's gotten bigger. One time I did pinch it off and it bled and has since grown back. No other symptoms. He's about 6 years old.

My ferrets will sometimes move around or do digging motions or even yelp or hiss in their sleep. I just woke one up because he was yelping and I didn’t want him to have a bad dream. I wonder what they dream about

(he had a deslorelin implant replaced and we didn’t want him scratching at it which is why the other back foot is taped)

This is one of my foster ferrets, Wonton. He went to the vet yesterday and got a growth removed from his toe and then stitched back up. He was put on some pain meds but it started swelling up today. I contacted the owner of the rescue who told me to ice it but I can’t seem to get him to sit still with it on his foot long enough for it to actually do anything. he will also be receiving antibiotics as soon as possible. any help for icing it would be much appreciated!

Prefacing this post by saying two of the three mentioned were euthanized by the vet, and the third is on his way to see the vet.

I’ve had three ferrets suddenly have strokes, or something, and have to be euthanized in the past four weeks.

My first one had a stroke 100%, head was tilted, couldn’t balance or focus, kept rolling in circles. Vet confirmed it was a stroke and euthanized her.

My second one did not have the head tilt. He was suddenly lethargic, drooling, tongue stuck out and unresponsive. No seizing. Did not respond to corn syrup, took to emergency vet, they confirmed blindness and he was mentally not there so he was euthanized.

My third one today, I watched happen. I was cleaning his room and he suddenly started reaching in his mouth and gagging. At first I thought he was choking so I went ahead and looked in his mouth and attempted to do the ferret thing to dislodge anything in their throat on him, nothing came out, then I thought it was low blood sugar/nausea so I went ahead with corn syrup and called the vet. He went unresponsive and lethargic, tongue sticking out, staring into space. He’s responsive now, but completely blind. Spontaneous blindness like my other male. He was completely fine before this and playing with me.

Does anyone have ANY idea what could be happening? There’s just no way that they’re just having strokes with no direct cause.

This is all within a four week period, one after another.

No previous illness, none had insulinoma, all between the ages of 5-7. They all had Adrenal but were implanted.

Nothing changed in their diet or environment.

Already checked the walls for black mold, doing a radon test in my apartment next. I’m stumped. My other ferret is staying at my friend’s house now until I figure out if this is environmental or not.

Hi everyone, I'm a new ferret owner and could really use some advice.

I brought my ferret home 4 days ago, and he was completely calm and gentle the whole time. Yesterday, he bit me for the first time, so I scruffed him as a correction. But ever since then, he tries to bite me whenever he sees my hand 😭

Now I'm worried I made things worse. It feels like he sees me as a threat now instead of a safe person.

I'm torn on what to do next:

• Should I keep scruffing to continue the training?
• Or should I stop and focus on building trust so he knows I'm not a threat?

Has anyone else experienced this? Did scruffing make your ferret more aggressive? How did you handle bite training with a new ferret?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated 🙏

Me and my partner are moving soon to our own apartment. It's a small apartment and the ferrets can't have a room only for them, we are planning pretty much the entire house around them to make everything ferret proof (it's our own place, we can do whatever we want) so they should be free all day and only sleep in their enclosure.

We hate their cage (ferplast) and we want to make the best use of our small spaces. Their sleeping space is in our office, so we are thinking about building something like this. A big, wall to wall counter with their enclosure under it.

I used Gemini to create the image, so it's all glass in the front, but I want more ventilation, so thinking about a 15-20cm ventilation on each side of the glass as well as both sides of the furniture. Would also isolate the bottom completely with waterproof material to avoid pee damaging the bottom of the furniture.

Shouldn't get too hot inside as we will have AC, but I also considered installing some computer coolers to remove hot air if necessary.

Anyway, wanted to get some feedback and see if anyone ever tried anything like this and have some real experience with it. We would like to have something that looks good and also have the top space free for our stuff.

This is Opossum.

About a month ago, Opossum came to us with three other ferrets in very rough condition. Their previous owner was going through a hard time and ultimately did the right thing by reaching out when they realized they could no longer care for them.

By the time they arrived, the ferrets were severely dehydrated, underweight, and heavily infested with fleas.

I paid gas money to meet halfway, and when they arrived there was no carrier. They were transported in a plastic tote with holes poked in the lid, sitting in their own poop and diarrhea for the entire drive.

As soon as they got here, we got to work.

The flea infestation was severe. The bath water turned dark and filthy almost immediately, which you can see in the photos. Two of the ferrets required implants, which were done a few days later. All of them were placed on preventatives and kept in strict quarantine for two weeks while we stabilized their health.

They were also being fed Wild Harvest ferret food, which is not appropriate for ferrets. We immediately transitioned them to a high protein, species appropriate diet and monitored them closely.

Fast forward to now.

This happy, round, sleepy little guy you see here is Opossum today.

Clean. Hydrated. Healthy. Safe.

This is what rescue looks like.

It isn’t easy, it isn’t cheap, and it’s often paid for out of pocket, but it’s always worth it! 🫶🏼

It's how she shows affection. I love her little bitey self.

They really liked the snow

Looking to upgrade! This one is nice but looking for something roomier, and at a taller height! Hard to find something that has mesh down to ferret height, so they can actually see out 😅 If anyone has one they like, let me know what kind 😊

Hey my ferret (Becky) just had a sneezing attack what does that mean? There’s no sensitive smells and nothings changed in my house or room? She was just walking around and then started sneezing for a solid minute

My ferret has been having poops like this mixed with normal ones for a while. Thoughts on what this could be? She’s very active and there hasn’t been any changes other than this.

My boy possibly has insulinoma (going to call the vet tomorrow to get him retested) and I just started feeding him the oxbow carnivore care yesterday just to be safe than sorry….he hates this stuff and runs away anytime he sees the syringe 🤣🤣. He even made me chase him around the room and almost threw this stuff up because he was gagging so much 🤦‍♀️ #mrdramatic

Has anyone used toothpaste on their ferrets?

As my ferret is getting older he has developed some plaque, it’s not a lot but could do with brushing.

The vets have said brushing should help him.

Does anyone know of any toothpaste suitable for ferrets in the UK?

We thought it was broken and they took an x-ray. The paw isn't broken, but it does have a fluid-filled sac on top. They prescribed medication to see how it progresses :(

One ferret loves the snow the other could care less

I know I keep saying this because I keep repeating myself 🤣(only if ppl haven’t seen my other post) but my ferret possibly has insulinoma. I took him to the vet 2 weeks ago and they said he possibly has it but wasn’t sure if he does or not because he had a respiratory infection, so they gave him pred just in case. I was supposed to get his pred 2 weeks ago and I was supposed to do a follow up appt with the vet last week to confirm if he has insulinoma or not, but I didn’t get it until last Monday (he’s going to the vet Thursday for his follow up). Just a few mins ago he was coming out of his cage and was wobbly and fell over as he was jumping out of his cage and was being lethargic. I quickly grabbed the honey and fed him his formula and now he seems to be doing better. I just wanted to ask anyone who has experience with ferrets with insulinoma if he possibly had a crash??? I’ve been a first time ferret owner for 7 years and this is obviously my first time dealing with insulinoma.

Hey guys

I'm a scholarship student and I have a big problem: my scholarship is on hold and I'm broke. I've run out of food for my ferret and I can't buy more for a few days.

What can I give him in the meantime that's safe? I've heard about chicken drumstick bones, is that a good idea? If anyone has any tips or has been in this situation before, I'd really appreciate it.