Hey...
 
Well, our Freya definately has lymphoma (thank you Sukie and Dr. Williams
for encouraging us to do the biopsy, I feel much better knowing what's
going on in her bod...).  She is unbeleivable!  The first day at the vet's
after surgery she managed to get her catheter (I think I spelled that
wrong...) tangled around her 3 times and pulled it out once!!  She also
managed to capture the hearts of every tech in there (of course :) ).  We
brought her home to a modified open topped plastic storage bin, thinking
she would be as sluggish after surgery as our 5 year old had been after his
adrenal surgery.  No such luck.  The first thing she did was jump out (the
girl has stitches from sternum to belly button and she clambers over 18
inches of plastic to look around!!!).  So while Robert kept her subdued, I
ran out and bought a little recovery cage - the vet wants us to keep her
"quiet" til the stitches come out.  Wooo, grumpy ferret!  So now we have
four cages.  Two downstairs with the 3 ece/grumpy tummy/coccidea, god knows
what kids, and 2 upstairs with Ms. heathy and Ms. heathy recovering from
surgery!!
 
More bad news Spawn - who caught whatever tummy nasty it is from Strider,
our rescue, is not doing so well.  We have him on carafate (thanks to the
person who wrote in and mentioned it, I appreciate it!!) to help with the
nausea, but he's still lost quite a bit of weight.  We've known he was
going to go for a while, he's had both adrenals out, and at the time of the
second surgery, the vet saw tons of little tumors throughout his organs.
That was a year ago.  He's been doing okay, but this illness has kicked his
butt.  His hind legs are weakening, and he doesn't want to eat.  He still
likes to run around, but he does a lot of the flat ferret resting to take a
break.  I guess I'm writing all of this to remind people, even if the new
kid has been to the vet, quarantine it for a minimum of 3 weeks so you can
get a decent perspective on the kid's health.  I didn't (against my
husband's wishes mind you) and my Spawn is wasting away.
 
Now, off of that subject, and on to meanderings about ferrets surviving in
the wild.  I was watching Strider last night as we were playing with this
spectacular new cat toy from petco.  A fishing pole, with attatched fish
that you can cast and reel in!!!  Besides delighting their mom to no end
(Woo-hoo, look at how far I cast that one honey!!) the kids love it.  At
this point I challenge California Fish and Wildlife to come over and watch
my "predator" attempt to catch his fish.  Every time he gets seriously
involved in attacking the fish, he has itchy fits!!  He has to stop,
scratch, and then attack if the fish is still there, then he has to scratch
again, and again!!!  My Freya does the same thing!  Very intent, then "Oh,
man I've just gotta scratch my belly, now!!" These ferrets are seldom itchy
till it comes to "big hunt".  Then it's all over!  Can you imagine these
kids in the wild!?!?!?!  "Oooo, look at that nice, juicy squirrel, just a
little bit- aaaaigh, gotta itch!!" Although maybe that's a technique all
it's own, maybe the squirrel falls over laughing at the sight of this
vicious predator having an itchy fit, and gets caught cause it can't get
back up, of course that may lead to more scratching... Hmmm - maybe fish
and wildlife does have a point - that's a terrifying hunting technique!
<lol>
 
Mary & Robert
Furparents to Spawn, Freya, Trinity, Artemis, and Strider
[Posted in FML issue 3304]