Had some people write asking so:
those who are restricted to two legs: Dad had a rough early weekend but is
fine now; Steve is recovering form shingles well with only two sections
still crusted and will likely scar, but scarring is no big deal.
 
The ones you were most curious about:
ferrets: Ashling's biopsy came back.  It was good news.  Her right adrenal
had a cortical adenoma so the chances are that the surgery was curative.
Her left adrenal had hemorrhages of unknown cause but was otherwise normal.
Her liver section was normal.  The nodes indicated some type of intestinal
inflammation.  Easiest answer is that she might be getting more heavy cream
than she can deal with as a treat from a certain wonderful someone.  We'll
try reducing that first.  Eating and drinking: as is normal post-surgically
she at first needed some help eating and drinking so there was a lot of a/d
mixed with water and Nutrical mixed with water -- given by finger over a
long cuddle, or by spoon, or by shallow bowl as was required at any given
time.  (During her first 24 hours we did shifts so she had round-the-clock
coverage and the next day she had a short times at any hour without us
right there.  That's usual for here.) Now she is sneaking her crunchies as
they often do after a surgery and we have to pay careful attention to catch
her eating while monitoring her condition to not under-do the supplemental
a/d, but she's not eating all her a/d anymore and her stools are firming up
while she remains robust so that indicates that the crunchy level is
increasing.  Activity: On her second day she wanted to check out the house
so we had to be very careful.  We'd expected that she might turn out to be
more active than wanted at any point and that's been true.  Two days ago or
so she even began climbing and jumping.  Thank goodness for sick-cages
since such not only keep her away from dirty litter which could infect her
incision and form stitch-pulling friends, but also prevent her form
injuring herself by over-doing things.  We regulate activity times and have
her in a safe room for those for set periods (first of two bathrooms).
Incision: still two places where it is crusted but otherwise she is almost
closed up from her surgery a week ago; her first small and closed area
appeared only two days after surgery.  (Quite different form 6 weeks for
major abdominal surgery for human adults, isn't it?) Rash: a few days back
she began to scratch a bit and then yesterday she erupted with what looked
like hives on one side of her abdomen and inside upper thigh yesterday.
Switched her antibiotic.  It's been 30 hours now since her last dose of the
first antibiotic and she has no more lesions but some slight redness and
has stopped acting itchy.  Possibly an allergy.  Ashling is a PV spayed
female, a gray white handed/footed girl who isn't true mitt because her
markings aren't clearly white -- there's little else mixed in.  At 3 and
1/2 she's out first early adrenal.
 
Meeteetse: As you know, this almost 8 year old, MF, spayed female chocolate
has insulinoma which is medically handled (prednisone and proglycem) and
had a silent R adrenal tumor show up on ultrasound but as long as it
remains silent we're all fine with it.  It could, of course, be a false
positive but I gather it was very clear so that's not too likely.  It's
just asymptomatic, is all.  No one knows how many asymptomatic adrenal
growths are out there in ferrets or how many of them will never be a
problem.  She also has a benign splenic growth.  If she were younger, or
her problems were more dangerous surgery would be done since that is
typically the best option for each of these, but she's not a good surgical
candidate.  She did not have any abdominal enlarged nodes in the ultrasound
and her blood work was great except for her sugar levels.  A while back she
began having first fecal and then urinary incontinence and a number of
things have been tried but haven't worked.  She'll have a few bad days then
a few good ones.  Right now we are trying hormonal replacement therapy in
case she has lost too much supportive mucus membrane tissue.  Will watch
and see if this works; there have been a few ferrets the specialist
consulted saw helped by this.  One of our problems is that so many people
just destroy animals who become incontinent that there's very little info
on treating the problems.  It does look like she might be getting a bit
more fullness around her rectum though that remains a line rather than a
dot; it's early days, though.  Yesterday she had a wonderful day -- very
active and always made it to her newspaper sections.  She can't balance on
litter pellets anymore but we think we'll get some clay litter and see if
she likes that for her feet.  There is a small calcification which shows up
by her lowest lumbar vertebrae.  She's an old lady with old ferret problems
so we just do what can be done.  She as her own room (second of two
bathrooms) now and friends visit; a combination she seems to enjoy greatly.
 
Warp's been fine recently except for one bad night when Ashling first came
home, I gently massage Scootie's big spleen down in size and he is happy
with that, and other three (Jumpstart, Glueball, and Seven of Six) are
fine.
[Posted in FML issue 3141]