Ferret suffering. Should be euthanized, but not my animal. What to do?

[satomi325]

The owner is a little strange. Definitely not normal. I've only met him a few times as he's not an active member in the club.
He's a priest for a hospital, so maybe he refused initial vet care because he was hoping God will restore his ferret? I'm not trying to joke here. He seemed genuinely concerned for his ferret, but she was extremely neglected. Either way, an upsetting situation for the ferret.


He seemed shocked that she died. I guess I was too, but I wasn't surprised it happened. The whole spazzing episode right before she fell limp maybe suggested a seizure or cardiac arrest. It just happened so quickly.
The owner claimed she was healthy other than "showing signs" or insulinoma. From what I saw, she was in advanced stages of UNTREATED insulinoma and died a horrible death in addition to her neglect. And I'm sure all the stress of the fire, moving place to place, and being away from familiarity, being overwhelmed by new people/ferrets/places took it's toll on her little fragile body. Plus she was really old.

We asked about the necropsy, but the owner said not to bother. We just sent her to get cremated and she will be back in a week. The owner said he will pay for her cremation. And if she were alive, he was going to pay for her vet visit and treatment too.
I guess he's accepted that his ferret is better off. I have a handful of witnesses(including a vet and vet tech), videos, and photographs of the ferret's miserable condition to vouch that she was not well. So I doubt he will blame me for her death.

I'm sad that this happened, but relieved that the ferret isn't suffering any more.

Thank you everyone who gave helpful suggestions and support. I really appreciate it.

[Vasiliki]

Nikki, thank you for the update. That's unfortunate that it happened at all, but I'm glad that nobody is pointing fingers at the end (especially towards you). That's the main part I was worried for.

Thankfully, the ferret isn't in pain anymore

[wolfy-hound]

It's good that you have the proof. If at some point he decided to sue you, you could use that to offer to press charges of neglect/abuse, and/or use them as proof that it was his own neglect and the advanced age of the ferret than led to it's demise.

[Homegrownscales]

That is so sad. I do know that ferrets in old ages health can change so quickly. A few weeks ago I had to put my 9 year old male down. He had issues for a long time and he had come to his end after a year of vet treatments. In his case he went from totally fine on meds to seizures, losing weight, and immobility in literally 2 days. I made the decision that it was time. The vet agreed that there was nothing to be done and anything longer would have been suffering. I do know what it's like to be an owner though and have to think about things like that. It sucks.
In this case I'm sorry that you had to be the one to watch that. It is never fun. Big changes are stressful on any ferret and seniors don't take things well like that.
I hope everything can be worked out with the owner.


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[Mike41793]

Have some peace of mind knowing that she passed away in your care rather than his. Sounds like you really took care of her and made her comfortable in her finally days. Sorry to here about this clusterfudge you had to go through Nikki!

[Navy]

What a jerk
I don't care what situation you're in, if you cannot afford to take your animal to the vet, you give it to someone who can.

I was going to make a suggestion which, seeing as the poor gal's been dead for over three days, it's a little too late to do.
But in the future, if you ever receive an animal like that, take photos of it's condition. Even if it dies, I know that doesn't seem too respectful, but I've heard some stories where the owner tries to put the caretaker at blame with a lawsuit.


Maybe you can take some peace in knowing that she probably died a tad more comfortably than she would have in his care.
People like that should NOT own animals.