Our beautiful baby Jewel was rushed to the vets on Tuesday. I want to share this story because I want her life to have meaning. I would rather that her story helped inform owners than for Jewel and ourselves to have went though this for no reason.
It was warm last week so I might have missed some early signs but Jewel was her usual self last weekend. She wasn’t at the water bottle or water bowl any more often than normal. She wanted her cuddles, she stashed her food, she played with her cousins. Everything was normal. The only sign that anything at all was wrong was a mothers instinct on Monday evening saying something was off but she was acting normally, she was eating and drinking, she wasn’t hurting, her stomach felt normal, she wasn’t sick, her poo was normal. So, I thought I was just being paranoid (I am known to be at times). On Tuesday she was fine, acting normally, came up for her breakfast and I wasn’t worried anymore. I was busy on Tuesday. I can’t even remember why, everything’s raw and fuzzy just now. In the early evening though Jewel didn’t come out for her dinner. I went looking for her. I thought she was just death sleeping. I knew something was wrong as soon as I touched her. She was dehydrated and lethargic. We got some fluids and sugar into her and took her straight to the vet. By the time we got there she was brighter but there was a little discharge and I knew what we were facing. We were hopeful. She couldn’t survive an emergency spay just yet but the pus was draining naturally so the vet started treatment and we had to get fluids into her so we could hopefully spay the next day. At 10pm something changed about the discharge. At 2am she was in pain. At 3am she died in my arms. She tried so hard but pyometra takes so much from them and it gives so little time.
Pyometra is a uterine, womb, bacterial infection. Usually E-coli, a very common and normally harmless bacteria, reproduces unchecked in the womb causing it to swell up with pus. A lot of people think only dogs can suffer from this illness but any animal with a uterus can potentially get it. Pyometra is rare in ferrets, especially young ferrets. In all my time with ferrets this is only my second experience with pyo in a ferret and the other was an elderly lady. Despite this owners should be aware of the risks and symptoms so they can recognise it. If there is to be of any hope you must get treatment as soon as possible
Symptoms vary a lot in pyo animal to animal. Some people refer to pyo as a silent killer as the symptoms can come too late to help, or be hard to recognise. They include cleaning the genitals excessively, lethargy or signs of pain, swelling of the stomach, sickness or being off their food, excessive thirst or dehydration, and a vaginal discharge in cases of open pyometra. Jewel was one of the unlucky ones. She didn’t have any symptoms before 10am on Tuesday, we theorise that after breakfast she felt ill and went for a nap in her hammock. While she was asleep her body tried to fight it leading to dehydration and by the time she’d woken we think she felt too lethargic and ill to move which is when I found her.
Pyo is caused by a bacterial infection in the womb. The only way to completely prevent it is to spay, and be sure to remove the whole uterus. Implanting can help prevent pyo because the hormone changes associated with seasons can make infection more likely and the vulva swelling, discharge and mating can make it easier to introduce the bacteria that causes the infection (another reason to be careful to keep your ferrets clean).
Treatment is not always successful but often includes an emergency spay and antibiotics, alongside anti-inflammatories, pain killers and supportive care.
RIP my beautiful blue eyed girl <3