Is your Tetanus up to date?

[Lazy-Ferret]

As I have gotten older, I have taken this whole tetanus thing with a pinch of salt, lets face it, every cut or graze as a kid seemed to need a tetanus jab, and we were always told it was for our own good, else we might get "Lock Jaw". Now while we all knew a few people who could do with getting lock jaw to shut them up a bit, no-one I knew or ever met, had even heard a story of anyone actually getting Tetanus, there were not even the tenuous stories relating to a friend of a friend who had seen a sister's brother's dad's best friend get it, like there is with most things in life.

Then as I got older, they started delaying the tetanus jab, it seemed like it was no longer every hospital visit, but 2 yearly, then 5, then 7, finally seeming to settle at about every 10 years, so for me, as suddenly as they had started giving them every time I did something stupid, they stopped again and I could get away without the dreaded Tetanus shot after I had my stitches. Now this isn't a compliant, by the way, as I will do anything to avoid getting an injection, I know it is irrational, but I am scared silly of them, and for me the worst part of any trip to hospital, regardless of the injury, was the waiting to have the Tetanus jab after they had patched me up.

So as far as I was concerned, Tetanus was up there with honest politicians, Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter bunny, Your face will freeze like that, and of course, this won't hurt a bit!!!

Well, by now, you should all know how fanatical I am about our ferrets, and how they live as part of the family, much the same way most people have cats or dogs. We have a ferret proof garden so they can go out there and play, and when out there, they like nothing more than assisting with the gardening... They dig the hole, we fill it in, so they can dig it deeper... We plant a bulb, they dig it up and move it.. It all makes for a great surprise display in the spring, as we never know what is going to grow where. They also love Power tools, and never miss an opportunity to try and own one, here is Caramel about to make off with my angle grinder.




So, to the point.... Caramel managed to catch and snap one of his claws. He came to us a a rescue in a real bad state a few years ago, but once recovered, he was never one to withhold kisses and cuddles, and was a great companion to us and the other ferrets.

Luckily, catching their claws does not happen very often, but when a ferret does snap one off at the quick, it can be very hard to stem the bleeding, and the only other time it has happened to us, resulted in an emergency vet visit, late at night, with Suz and I covered in blood, and looking like we had taken a bath with Psycho... They can literally bleed out from such an apparently tiny injury.

So you can imagine how relieved we were when we saw Caramels was not actually bleeding very much, and within half an hour he was back up and walking on it, and an hour later was back to normal, belting round like nothing was wrong, and back out in the garden moving shrubs and trees.


A few days go past, we are at Thursday, last week, and have now forgotten all about Caramels injured paw. It was a hot day, which while nice for us, is not so good for ferrets, as they are not very good at coping with heat, so we were not in the least bit surprised when Caramel, along with most of the others were a bit lethargic and did not want to go outside, preferring to stay in the Air-conditioned living room.

Friday morning, Suz went to the cage they sleep in over night, to collect their food bowls for washing up, and Caramel literally threw himself into Suz's arms, which was not that unusual, but he normally did it with a bit more finesse. She immediately knew something was wrong, as his whole body was rigid, it felt like you were holding an animal that had already died, and rigamortis had set in, only he was alive and breathing.

We rushed him off to the vets, where he spent the whole day on drips and stuff, but in the evening I had to make the very hard decision to put him to sleep, as the prognosis was by then very bad. They had him on the strongest muscle relaxants going, and still could not get him to stop having seizures and fits.

Basically, he had caught Tetanus via the cut in his toe, while digging in the garden... Our garden, the safe ferret friendly place where we also spend many house digging and tending with our bare hands.

So please let this be a lessen for all the Manly Men, the "It's only a scratch" people, who carry on regardless. That is exactly what ferrets are like, life is too short to let a little pain, or discomfort stop them from having fun, a broken toe, so what, there's wrecking to be done...

You can't get tetanus shots for ferrets, but for us you can, and you need one every 10 years, it's not just deep wounds that get Tetanus, so make the most of it, you just never know.