I'm sorry to tell you that Pip, Thor and Bud all crossed over the bridge
this weekend.
 
Thrusday:
Thursday afternoon Bud began seizing.  Russell then rushed both Thor
(who was recovering from surgery and suffering suddenly from diaherra)
and Bud to the vet.  Thor stopped breathing 2X, Bud had 6 more seizures.
Amazingly Thor and Bud made it through the night.  Thor went home for
the night with our vet (thank god for them).  Thor was still really
borderline.  He was able to eat a little early Friday morning (5am) but
is still very out of it.  He stayed at the Vets on fluids allday.  I
picked him up that night to take him home to care for him.  Bud went home
with us Thursday night.  He had about 6 seizures Thursday but none of
them after going home with us.  He finally came back around and was able
to swallow again around 4:30pm and he went home with me at 7pm.  I was
up every 2 hours giving him dextrose through a catator and feeding him.
Between 4:30am and 7am he starting having diaherra but he was still
eating by syringe so we had hope.  I had also taken Pip in as he had had
diaherra for over a week, but was improving.  At that time it was thought
he was beating the virus he had caught and would make it.
 
Friday:
Friday both Thor and Bud spent the day at the vets office on fluids,
dextrose and what ever other meds they might have needed.  By that night
Thor was the better of the 2 so he came home with me and Bud went home
with the vet instead.  Thor did so-so during the night, I was up again
every 2 hours checking on him.  My last check on him was at 6am, my alarm
was set to go off at 8am Saturday morning.  At 7:55am I awoke to horrible
screaching, Thor was seizing.  I managed to run out of the bed room, down
the hall, grab the syringe and get it into his catator and inject him
with the dextrose, in the dark, without my glasses.  I'm very impressed
with that cause if you didn't know me, you wouldn't know I am blind as a
bat without my glasses.
 
Saturday:
Pip was unexpected and I think I it took that worse then the others.
He was "my" baby.  I found him Saturday morning with what looked like
bruising on his belly.  As we rushed Thor back to the vet we took Pip
with us also.  He was crying softy, it was obvious he was very ill.  We
did a quick blood test and his blood was no longer clotting.  We didn't
wait but put him down immediatly to prevent him from suffering anymore.
Thor and Bud was still hanging in there and were "stable" but it was very
touch and go.  I returned to the vet's office at 2:30 (they closed at 3)
to pick up one of the ferrets for the weekend/night.  When I arrived Thor
was seizing again.  He seized 2X during the day and needed valium to
bring him out of it.  I made the decision that it was time for him too.
Sadly my husband wasn't with me so he didn't get a chance to say goodbye,
but I did tell Thor that his Daddy loved him and that it was ok to go.  I
took Bud home with me that night.  (Note: I'm now going on 3 nights of
little sleep.)  Bud was ok Saturday night, ate well at 4:30am but when I
got up to feed him again at 7 he was seizing.  He was basically comatose
from then till around 11am.  I finally got the honey (used to bring them
out of shock) to work on him and bring him back around to us.  I had
called the vet earlier and was waiting for her to call me back.  Bud
seemed stable so I went to sleep for an hour and left my husband caring
for him.  The vet called us back at Noon, at that time I learned that Bud
had seized again while I was sleeping (about 1.5 hours between seizures).
I tried to keep him going for the next 4hours.  At 4pm he had seizied
another 4X and I decided it was time.  I called the vet and she
volunteered to meet me at the office to put him down as she "didn't
want him suffering all night."
 
3 ferrets in 2 days.  My heart is broken.  I have bleached down all the
bedding and cage and no one else seems to have caught this virus that
killed them.  Praying that I killed every last freaking little germ.
 
Carrie
 
PS, I will be "unsubscribing" to the FML from Dec. 20 - Jan. 2nd as I
can not access email during that time.  Merry Christmas and Happy New
Year.
[Posted in FML issue 4000]