So many times I have read the FML posts where someone would have their
ferret die and my heart would ache for that person.  I always realized that
no matter how much I may have sympathized I truly never knew how it felt
because all my babies where alive and well.  I knew when the time came and
one of them passed on it would hurt me terribly because I love my fur balls
beyond description.  I am now facing that sad fact with one of my ferrets
and this post is to ask if each and every person who reads this would say
a little prayer for my Ripley who is not going to be with me very much
longer.  He has been deteriorating for the last 6 months, first with a
rather hollowish look in his hind leg area and then 2 and a half months ago
he started loosing his balance when he walked.  I took him in about 3 weeks
ago expecting the tests to show insulinoma but nothing showed up except
that he had two ruptured disks in his back and he was loosing calcium fast
in his bones.  The doctor put him on PetCal to try to build up the lack
of calcium in his hind legs but I had a sinking feeling something was bad
wrong and the right test simply hadn't been conducted to find out what was
taking Ripley's life away from him so slowly.  He would look at me in his
cage as he couldn't come out and play with his pals anymore.  A slight
tumble would break his legs.  He would give me kisses when I picked him up
ever so carefully as not to hurt his legs.  Today when I came home from
work he had lost total use of his back legs to the point where he was
dragging himself through his own excrement.  He is still eating and
drinking and alert as ever but he simply can't walk anymore and he is so
skinny in the backside it makes me wince when I see him like this.  So off
to the vet we went in the constant rainfall this area has been having.  Me
looking at him shake so badly in his cage like he does when he is scared
and wanting to just cry my heart out for the unfairness of it all.
 
Tonight he is in the hospital.  All alone and confused I imagine and it
is tearing me up inside.  The doctor is going to run a few more tests
including a bone marrow one as he is sure that Rip has bone cancer.
Whatever he has he is dying and his time is almost up.  I will have no
choice but to put him down when he gets really bad and I am trying to be
strong.  I want to spend every moment I can with this precious little fur
ball I bought 4 and a half years ago.  Now I know how many of you have felt
out there when you would post the sad news of your ferret passing on to the
Rainbow Bridge.  So I will ask all of you to read this to say a special
prayer for my Rippy-Boy that his time left is as painless as possible and
that he goes to this Rainbow Bridge.  My little Ripley.  The only ferret I
had that would nibble my ears and dook like mad whenever I squeaked a toy
near him.  I feel so terrible right now and only you all can know my pain
and hurting.  I had to write this.  Give your ferrets hugs and kisses and
enjoy every day with them.  Their life is just too short.
 
Diane
[Posted in FML issue 3357]