What killed Sassy??

Question

i had a little ferret, her name was Sassy, and like 3 days ago, i found Sassy, in her cage, dead. We have been having a flea problem since our neighbors fumagated their house. And we have been trying to get it under control frugally seeing that we are not financially able to treat all 8 of our animals at the time. I washed my two ferrets (Sassy and Sammy) with some ferret flea and tick shampoo. Which is nothing unusual, i kno that u ain't supposed to wash them too often, and i had only already washed Sassy once this year. (i usually wash them like 2x a year). So i scrubbed them all up with the shampoo, and i thought that they would be ok. But they weren't. The fleas had already started to take over my bedroom (where my ferrets are housed), and all i had to do was wait until payday to get them some advantage. Well, Sassy didn't make it til payday. I found her Mon morning in her cage, curled up, dead. And i was wondering, can fleas kill a ferret? And if so, how come they only killd her??

Why didn't they kill him too? He's still hanging in there, and now i have gotten the Advantage that i need. She was only like 2 or so years old, he's about 7 or 8 mos. They were both eating fine and very healthy, and at a good weight. I miss my ferret and i want to kno, were the fleas all to blame, or did something else take my beloved ferret away from me???

thx

i kno that it isn't a liver problem or something like that because i had a ferret to die from that, and i kno the symptoms. Her kidney was failing at the same time as her liver, and the doc basically told me that it was just a matter of what failed first.

Answer 1

there is no real way to tell without taking her to a vet to do a necropsy. however, it's possible that the fleas killed her. small animals can die from too much blood loss when fleas are involved. it could have been the shampoo, if she has a special sensitivity to it. it could be something else entirely. I'm not a vet and I'm not there to examine her.

Answer 2

I'd bet on the fleas! Years ago as a single mom, I allowed my son to bring home a hamster for the summer from his class room. Our cat got fleas and infested the house. While waiting until payday, the hamster died. I always blamed the fleas. They can take all the blood from small animals. I read somewhere that flea saliva is harm full, so a lot of fleas would mean a lot of saliva. So I don't think we will ever know what really happened to our furry friends, we do know that fleas are very bad and very very hard to get rid of. Sorry to hear you lost your ferret, I know exactly how you feel.
I do recommend that you prepare for next flea season by stocking up on the flea fighting materials. I found that at the first sign of those pesky bug, is the best time to strike. Once you get rid of them, do strike again just to be sure. Try really hard to get the proper supplies stowed away for the next war on fleas.
Also, when ever you bath you pets with flea shampoo. Be sure to leave the shampoo on the pet for at least 10 minutes. This is not always an easy task, but important in the flea killing process. Good Luck!

Answer 3

Yes fleas can kill any animal if there are enough of them. It doesn't necessarily follow that all your ferrets would die, animals don't always react the same to everything. I would think it more likely the ferret reacted badly to the fumigation or the flea shampoo. You should ask your vet for some safe treatment in future.

Chalice

Answer 4

Without a vet doing an autopsy, you'll never know. Fleas may not even have been a factor. Ferrets are prone to all sorts of liver & adrenal problems.