Work Them Bodies!
by Margaret Merchant and Noni Clark
Dedicated to Nicky Boy
Several years ago my life was graced with a very special ferret named Nicky Boy. Nicky was four, had been in four homes, and had no use of his hind legs. The day he came to live with me I took him to the vet to be checked out. Nicky, unfortunately, had a damaged lumbar vertebra that was well healed. There was nothing for the vet to fix.
Fortunately for both Nicky Boy and me I had a good friend, Noni Clark, who ran a ferret shelter and was a physical therapist. She designed a simple program of exercises for me to do with Nicky. They helped him recover some use of his hind legs and made him feel a lot better over all.
First thing first, be sure and check with your vet before doing something like this! It is essential that you understand what the problem is with your ferret, especially in the case of injury. You have to know if it is safe to perform under your circumstances. I knew NickyÕs injury was old and well healed due to radiographs (x-rays).
Physical therapy is not just to regain use of limbs. Noni explained to me as a muscle atrophies it can become so tight that it is actually painful. When I first got Nicky, he could not curl up in circle like normal ferrets. His back muscles were so tight he couldnÕt bend his mid-section. So even if your ferret doesnÕt regain use of limbs, he still will feel much better than without working out. In NickyÕs case the nerves were damaged so the therapy helped them remember how to move the muscles. Unfortunately it couldnÕt help him recover all his motion, but it did work what seemed like miracles to me.
DonÕt overdo. I worked on Nicky only 2-3 minutes a day (about a minute per limb or back). Go gently. Learn to feel the resistance in the muscles and donÕt push it. Each day they will move a little more as they become used to moving again. At first Nicky really fussed at me about his routine, but in the end he really seemed to enjoy it.
Water therapy can also help. If your ferret that doesnÕt object strongly to water, put them is a sink or tub of warm water and gently support them by their bellies (either with your hand or a towel as a girth) so that they can move their limbs. Encourage them by moving their limbs yourself. The water helps to loosen any tightness they might have.
To exercise the ferretÕs back, hold them in both hands curled up in a ŌUĶ shape. Gently roll them up and down like an upside down slinky. This helps to stretch out the back muscles that atrophy with the loss of hind end movement. Do not force the ferret into position. When I started out with Nicky, his ability to curl up was extremely limited. As was his ability to roll up and down. As he became more and more limber, he could curl up as well as Sugar Magnolia (my reluctant model for these photos).
For the back legs, lay the ferret in your lap or on a table. Take one foot in your hand and gently rotate it in a full circle, first frontward and then backwards. Next extend the leg out all the way, and then fold it back in. DonÕt miss bending the knees and ankle joints to insure their freedom. The goal of these exercises is to make the body move in its full range of motion. You could apply this to the fore limbs also by gently moving them in their full range of motion, both forward and backwards.
While these exercises seem simple, the will work wonders. Nicky went from a ferret that dragged his hind end around to one who could actually stand on his hind legs (while holding on with his front). He was finally able to climb things and run as fast as the other ferrets. But his problem was still apparent. He would topple over on his hips sometimes. When jumping down off of something he would more or less fall, his back legs werenÕt strong enough to support the impact of the landing. And NickyÕs incontinence never went away. I just learned to clean more.
Was it worth it? Hell yes! I could literally see the joy in NickyÕs eyes and he was so in love with life. It was a very small amount of trouble for me to a huge payback. Was Nicky in pain? Well, since I have a cracked lumbar vertebra of my own, I must say he could have been. But it wasnÕt anything that overwhelmed him or made him slow down. The better he moved, the more he moved. It was obvious that Nicky Boy appreciated the help I was giving him and took full advantage of the results. I would encourage anyone who thinks that partial or full paralysis is something to euthanize an animal over. You have to weigh what they have lost with what they can still do and what you can do for them. Animals adjust very well to setbacks. While they can still feel pain, I honestly believe they process it different mentally and we should not put our own feelings on them.
Here is a drawing of a ferret skeleton, so you can see where all the pivot points are located.