Yesterday we lost our first ferret, Kiki. He'd been at the vets since Thursday night when I found him unresponsive in a hammock. It looked like he'd suffered some sort of convulsion or serious bout of low blood sugar.

When we got him to the vet's he was put on intravenous fluids and the initial diagnosis was, in fact, convulsions due to low blood sugar, probably as a result of an insulinoma.

Early Friday he was still not great but was responding to treatment though he wasn't eating. When he became more lethargic even though blood work showed nothing amiss and that his blood sugar was back in normal ranges and x-rays were inconclusive, exploratory surgery was suggested. However, as he was being prepped for this his heart began to send out to many electrical signals and to beat far too fast. He was put on emergency medications, but these were ineffective. His heart stopped early Saturday.

As of now no one is sure what happened to him. While our other three ferrets were all on medication for insulinomas, Kiki showed no signs of a problem until Thursday night. Furthermore the heart problems seemed to come out of nowhere and he didn't respond to any of the treatments. His symptoms were confusing and the vet couldn't honestly say what the underlying problem was that would produce such an odd mix of symptoms.

This illness came out of nowhere and has left us stunned here. Also, since we don't know what caused it there is some concern that it could affect our other ferrets.

I wish there had been more I could do. I keep thinking I must have missed something important, but at this point that really does no good.

Kiki was a sweet, energetic creature always ready to wrestle for a sock or neurotically rearrange his toys. He was our alpha fuzzy, and he will be missed.