Sebastian our second pet mink and other ferret stories.

The Telford Orphans Tyee and Chenoa

I had a phone call from Phil Wilson on 27th August to say, he was going to pick up two ,week old kits from Telford.Their Mother and five brothers and sisters had been drowned, but somehow these two were taken to a safe haven.Phil sat up all that night feeding the kits every two hours and kept them warm by putting them inside his shirt. The next day Troy Coverdale, one of our members met Phil somewhere on the M6 to bring the kits back here as Phil was unable to care for them long term.My Hubby Arthur went off to the vets to pick up some Cimicat, which is dried milk for young animals.I waited very nervously for these two tiny creatures to arrive, wondering if we could help them to survive. I had my doubts when I saw them as they were so tiny. I had never raised any animal this young but Arthur and I decided we were going to have a damn good crack at it.We decided that every day they survived was a bonus. Out come my bible ( The complete book of ferrets by Val Porter and Nicholas Brown) to help us through the feeding. How much milk do you give a tiny creature like this? The bottle I had was to big so we used a tiny syringe. I must add that my Vet Roger Hands and his staff were wonderful.

Chenoa aged 1 week

Chenoa and Tyee aged 6 weeks

We put the kits in an incubator type pen with a hot pad under their little basket that we re-heated every 4 hours. We fed the little ones every 2 hours round the clock for the first two weeks and then every three until they were 4 weeks old.Then we cut down the night feeds and fed them every 4 hours. We introduced them to softened ferret biscuits and mince at 3 weeks old aswell as their milk. We also had to wash their little private bits every time we fed them to make them pee and poo.At five weeks I had my first nights complete sleep and I can tell you I was ready for it too.As you can see from the bottom left hand picture they have grown into two very beautiful polecat jill kits and Arthur and I are not only delighted they made it but very proud of them.Needless to say they have been adopted by us.They are now eating fresh rabbit ,hard ferret biscuits in fact they are like all other kits,eating for England.

After

Before

Ernie came into the rescue on August 26th 2002 having been rescue by one of our members. He had nearly 40 bites on and around his neck and was put immediately onto anti-biotics to help reduce the swelling. Ernie is a lovely boy and had an operation on his neck on September 2nd. At the same time he was neutered and had his bad teeth removed. He had another abscess and had yet another op on October 14th,he also had the two remaining bad teeth out. (Right) - Ernie has recovered and is living happily at the centre with all his pals.

On the left is a picture of Eric's back a week after treatment started here at the rescue. Eric was found wandering in April 2002 in an awful state, he also had open sores under his chin. The wound on his back had 28 huge ticks in it that were removed straight away, the rest of his body was covered in them aswell. Something had also chewed half of his ear off. Eric is now a very happy,playful poley hob and has made a wonderful recovery. He has been adopted by Deb Kenton and Nick Chesterfield and lives with his pals, Bobtail and Tigger.

Rusty came to us as a stray in June 2002 with a collar of 5 abscesses. As you can imagine he was in a bit of a state. With three operations behind him he is now well and fully recovered, as you can see from the pic on the right.Rusty and his friend Riva have been adopted by Jo Jeynes and share a home in a group with 17 other ferrets.

THINK ! before you light that garden bonfire.

E-mail from John Goddard- Ashfield Ferret Club - September 2003 Hi Rose, have to tell you this it might help others become aware. Last night at 6.30pm I was getting ready to go out with Margaret, Clare was in bed, she's on nights. I smelt smoke from the garden, when I went out it was snowing with ash. I saw plums of smoke coming from an adjacent garden but couldn't see because of the ferret pens and garage. I got an hose pipe out and started to hose the roof of the garage and especially the ferret pens. I climbed up onto a garden cupboard and saw flames licking up the fence behind the pens, an idiot two gardens down behind us had built two bonfires and lit them both they were about 3 feet from the hedge and fence. I realised now that I wasn't going to be able the keep the fire away. I screamed for Margaret to phone 999 and screamed for Clare to wake up and get down to help. the fire had now started to take hold of the rear of my garage although it is concrete but the facia is wood, the flames were so intense now and I could see that the first of our sheds/pens was starting to smoulder. I kept the hose going on the roof and Clare appeared with Margaret, I told them to get the ferrets out of the shed as smoke was now pouring into it from behind. this is where the problems got worse. we have locks on every cage in the first shed and in the panic Clare couldn't find the right keys, Margaret started evacuating the second pen as that was the obvious next pen to catch alight. the fire brigade arrived just then and they started to try and control the fire but they made Clare get out of the shed which was now on fire at the back, I was crying at this point because I knew she hadn't got the ferrets out and they were going to die of smoke inhalation if not out soon. so I ran into the shed and started forcing the doors open, I couldn't see much as the shed was full of thick smoke, as I got to the first ferrets a neighbour ducked into the shed and took the ferrets to safety then another ducked in and took more to safety. The fire was contained by now but lots of smoke still around. in all we lost no ferrets, we have brought the ones from the smoke filled shed into the house to keep an eye on them, but they seem to be ok. Then we had time to look back and see what we could have done differently. Just where do you put 80 ferrets in a hurry, how do you secure ferret pens/hutches with locks, but remember under duress which are which. If this had happened 40 mins later we wouldn't have been in and Clare would still have been asleep in bed. we WOULD have lost all four ferret pens with ferrets. The fire brigade said they can't charge the occupant of the other property because it wasn't malicious or criminal, just his stupidity in lighting the rubbish in his garden, there are another 3 gardens backing onto us, and 2 have bonfires built, they have been told not to light them, but who's there to stop them. I was so frightened for the ferrets Rose, all I could see was them burning in my minds eye, and last night I could still see that. looking at the damage today two fence panels are destroyed, the facia on the rear of the garage plus 2 metal roof panels are burnt through, the shed has one side burnt, not completely through but badly charred and a roof panel burnt, the second pen needs a roof panel. Please can I ask you to highlight the dangers of garden fires to your members and on your website, they don't need to be there's, and Bonfire night is just around the corner. John Goddard

www.mercia41.freeserve.co.uk web site maintained by Rose Morris

This page last modified on Wednesday, December 14, 2005