Really, REALLY mad!

Here's the story.

I found an ad on craigslist, a teenage girl found a ferret in her yard. Ferret was emaciated. She wanted to know if anyone knew what to do or could help. She had no money.

I responded, asking if she wanted someone to take the ferret, and told her I could, because I had experience with them and alot of knowledge of small animals and their care, health, feeding etc (which I do). Or I could offer support if she wanted to keep it.

She responded "yes, that would be great if you could take her". I responded with a time I could get her and a quick note that "if she's really bad off, I have a good vet". Then I picked her up a couple days later.

I assessed her, she was skinny, but not lethargic. I fed her innova evo cat food (they make a ferret too, but they have the exact same ingredients, protein, fat, fiber, etc), she ate it right away, I spoon fed babyfood chicken (as per the advise of everyone in the ferret community), and she was drinking a normal amount of water. I gave her probiotics to help her gut, and wormed her with fenbendazole, just in case. I did not take her to the vet. There was nothing else they would have done. She gained weight. Got her energy back, was doing really well for TWO MONTHS. Then suddenly, she died. I sent a message to the girl and she responded: "You didn't take her to the vet? That was the whole reason I wasn't keeping her myself" (not true, she offered her up before I brought up taking her to the vet), then ended with "I'd never have given her to you if I had known you wouldn't have taken proper care of her".

OMG.

The vets around here are HORSE vets. She'd said the ferret was "really weak". So I was figuring dehydrated, as well as undernourished. She was a little weak, but not bad, she ate and drank right away, and GAINED WEIGHT. So no, I didn't take her to the vet. She did not need emergency force feeding or sub q fluids.

I had her two months. I gave her great care. I don't know why she died, but it was not because I didn't take her to the vet!

But now I'm a little worried. Could she call authorities? Claiming animal neglect or abuse. Can she do that? Could I get in trouble for caring for the ferret myself without consulting a vet?

Nah, I wouldn't worry about that... You gave her great care, and that's that... Ferrets live for 5-8 years, who knows how old this one was ? Probably died of natural causes, nothing you could done... RIP little one
Sorry you lost your little buddy

Thank you. I am mostly just mad that she thinks I didn't take care of her.

You gave her the impression that the ferret would see a vet. Part of her anger towards you is because a) you didn't take the ferret to a vet. b) she feels guilty, that maybe she choose the wrong person. So some of that is just her lashing out. Lots of people do this when they feel guilty, then see reason later.

You really did seem to try with this ferret and I'm sure her last couple of months with you were good - probably far better than whatever resulted in her being outside in the first place.
Could a vet have prevent the ferret's death? Who knows. But as pointed out small animals don't live that long and a tough life can shorten that life span even more.

I don't think there's legal things to worry about. You may just get some mean/frustrated emails as she deals with her emotions. I'm assuming it was a lost pet she found - it's a good thing for the ferret that you found the post on Craigslist to take care of him.

Were you keeping in touch with her during the 2 months leading up to this? Meaning, did she know that you nursed the ferret back to health, all was well, that the ferret did NOT go to the vet because seemed healthy, and then the ferret passed? Or did you take the ferret and then let her know it died? If the latter is the case, maybe she wasn't expecting to hear from you again and it got her sad?

I gave her updates, she knew the ferret was getting better. She had asked for updates, and seemed happy with them.

I figured I would have to take her to the vet, the girls emails prior indicated she was lethargic and at deaths door. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case.

Looking back, I know I should have taken her to the vet anyway, so all bases would have been covered. But I don't believe the outcome would have been different.

Having ferrets myself, no, I don't believe the outcome would have been any different. It's hard to find a vet that knows ANYTHING about ferrets in the first place, even then ferrets are kind of mysterious medically speaking. I've never had a ferret saved by vet care. I think you did the best for her, and who knows how old she may have been?

Was this ferret losing hair at all? I ask this because my brothers grandparents rescue ferrets. The two oldest they have are both balding, the younger of the two just starting to lose its hair, and the oldest has no hair on its back. When I asked my Nana about the missing hair, she said that they start to lose their hair when they are really old. I'm thinking this particular ferret you took on might have had some sort of disease that killed it and taking it to a vet might not have changed the situation at all. Like another poster said, there aren't many vets out there that know much about ferrets. And, like you said, the vets around you are horse vets, so how much could they have known about ferrets? And what could they have done without any actual knowledge about them? At least you tried to help the little one, so sorry she crossed the Bridge. But, she may have crossed sooner if you hadn't come along. Who know what kind of life she had before that girl found her? For all anyone knows, her time with you could have been, and probably WAS the best time in her little short life..

R.I.P. Little Ferret.

Originally Posted by badkelpie

Could she call authorities? Claiming animal neglect or abuse. Can she do that? Could I get in trouble for caring for the ferret myself without consulting a vet?

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I don't think she'll call anyone. Vibes and prayers for you

Yeah, she had alot of hair loss, actually. I figured it was due to malnutrition. But even though she'd gained weight, her hair hadn't started coming back. I'm starting to wonder if she got dumped off when she got old.

She was sweet! Gave kisses and everything. And was not scared to let my dachshunds know when to back off. Even made my 13 year old doxie's nose bleed.

She didn't seem like she struggled, she was just asleep under her blanket, curled up with her head on her butt, like always.

I'm sure you did best by her giving her 2 months of great life. I totally hear you on the horse-vet thing, they are sometimes pretty clueless about small animals (although I doubt many dog/cat vets know what to do about colic either!).

Don't obsess about the what-ifs. If you had taken her to the vet you can't know if your efforts then would have been sucessful or that the treatment wouldn't have been worse then two great months of love and passing away peacefully on her own.

IMO you had experience and did what you thought was right. The girl didn't make you sign papers or anything - just gave you the ferret? And she didn't have your address/phone either?

If she has no real info on you, nothing can be done. Don't worry about it.

Hi, oh dear this angers me, how dare she accuse you like this. I agree with someone else, you do not know how old this ferret was, you sound to me like a very caring and kind person who gave your time to help someone and care for an animal. This girl has no proof or anything to back up her claims and it sounds like if the poor mite had stayed with her then it wouldn't have had long to live at all. What you did for this ferret is wonderful and please don't blame yourself at all. I had a rabbit off my friend once and it died after a month, I felt awful but it turned out she had a heart attack ( I took her to the vet for a postmortem as I felt so bad) the vet reassured me that there was nothing I could of done and it was just one of those things. You gave this ferret a few great months, please don't feel bad. xx

She has my name, full name, via email. And I think I gave her my phone number. I never even met her, but picked the ferret up from her sister when she was not there (school maybe?).

My vet is a horse, dog, cat, cattle, anything vet. I have felt confident bringing my chinchillas to him, since digestively speaking, chinchillas and horses are very similar.

I don't think you need to worry about anything legal. Unless you signed some paperwork that said "I will bring the ferret to the vet and it will never die in my care, even if it's natural causes."

Don't worry about it. You did a wonderful thing! She's just dealing with grief on some level, I think.

If she was losing hair, it was probably due to Adrenal Disease. Not much you can do for it, except surgery (which few older ferrets will survive). Although some promise has been shown with Melatonin implants. So, yeah, I think you did all you could.

She sent one back saying I should have gone to the "specialist" she found, basically the only vet in her town that takes ferrets (live one town away). Right. After one "exotic" specialist deprived my rat of food overnight before surgery even though rats have fast metabolisms and need food at all times, and don't have the ability to vomit. And another "bird specialist" who gave my sister's bird a cream made for dogs that killed it. Yet neither of these vets would take my chinchilla when he broke his leg. My regular vet did, and gave him top-notch care.

I didn't respond. It was stressing me out, and she doesn't rate high enough to deserve my stress.

Awww that's too bad that the little guy died. But she certainly shouldn't blame you for it. I wouldn't worry about that part of it.

RIP little ferret

If she has all of these should haves and could haves for you than she should have kept the ferret in the first place since she thinks she knew better.

She isn't being reasonable. You weren't negligent. S**t happens.