Want to prevent future deaths or near-deaths like Spirit's?  Get these
pieces of information to your state legislatures, humane groups, and
governor:
 
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding.html, and
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/MunicipaLawyer.pdf and
http://www.legis.state.il.us/publicacts/pubact92/acts/92-0454.html and
http://www.mhsource.com/pt/p000425.html (hoarding and how it hurts animals).
 
Hoarding is a form of abuse: it TORTURES and then it KILLS!
 
>I implore each and every one of you, to thoroughly check out anyone
>you are considering giving/adopting/boarding your ferrets to (or any
>companion animal for that matter).  Animal collectors are very deceiving
>and they easily convince the unsuspecting that they are the most loving
>and knowledgeable animal caretakers around.  Make visual inspections,
>ask for references from others that have visited their locations and
>worked with them.
 
And then actually contact those references in case they are lying about
them!  We use vet techs recommended by our vets for pet sitting; it works
perfectly.
 -----
 
It's often best to skip ultrasounds and put that monty into surgery costs
for either insulinoma (hypoglycemia causing growths) or for adrenal
disease due to large chance of those tests being no help for these
problems due to trouble imaging them and having to go in anyway (as
opposed to things like cardiomyopathy where ultrasounds are essential).
If the vet wants to test beyond blood sugar then can also check out
blood insulin levels.  Surgery is typically the best approach by a very,
very wide margin but when surgery is absolutely impossible there are
Prednisone and Proglycem.
 
Yes, Ferretone is often a great way to get Prednisone in.
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[Posted in FML issue 3848]