Wow, I've missed my daily dose of FML.  I wasn't able to read it over the
summer while I was cramming for my online classes and then my long time
boyfriend had an accident and we decided it was a sign to stop talking
about getting married and do it.  I planned an amazing wedding in three
weeks.  It was wonderful.  We've been married about 6 weeks now and it's
funny because we've been together so long that not much feels different.
(except for my cool new last name and this gorgeous ring!)  That's the
good news I have to share.  Unfortunately the last month we've found
that poo rolls downhill very fast.
 
First, My husband has been unable to work since August 28th and will
probably be off for two or three more weeks.  In that time our older
ferret KeeKee's labs have come back and she's Adrenal.  Symptoms are
progressing very slowly right now though.  I have been making payments
with our regular vet to finish paying for the visits and labs that we
had done on her in August.
 
Then, two weeks ago, our 1 y/o, Allie starts having trouble.  Can't use
her hind legs and has to be syringe fed every three or four hours.  She's
getting 28cc LR sub-q twice a day.  This is where our horrible Dr. B
story comes in.  Allie looked really bad and I wasn't sure if she would
make the drive out to the regular vets office, so I took her to the
Exotic vet near us.  (not knowing for certain who practiced there) As
soon as I saw the sign on the door though I remembered a story I had
heard from someone I trust about a certain ferret vet that has an
obsession with diagnosing ECE.  The sign on the office door said, "honk
the horn if you had a sick fert", so I did.  The vet tech comes out and
asks a few questions and lets us go into a room where she took a temp
(normal temp) and looked at some poop (normal poop too) so she tells me
that the vet isn't in, but she'll call her and consult with her.  Lo and
behold she gets off the phone and tells me that the vet thinks she has
ECE.  I knew better, but at that point I was so frazzled at Allie's
condition I thought that maybe whatever they gave her would take care of
the problem.  She(keep in mind we're still talking about the vet tech)
sends us off with the LR, some Amoxil (- I wondered about this a couple
days later when I realized she had no signs of infection... what that was
supposed to do I don't know) and some carafate to help coat her stomach.
(I wasn't sure what teeth grinding looked like when I first saw her doing
it.  It just looked like she was chewing a lot to me...) Anyway the tech
says that the vet wanted to look her over the next day and since I'd
already spent over $85 I figured if I took her over to the regular vet
I'd end up spending the same thing to repeat what had already been done
(Of course I've learned to always stick with the one you trust after this
experience!!!!)
 
So the next morning after I get off work I go back with Allie and honk
my darned horn.  (what ever happened to Universal Precautions????)  This
time Dr. B makes us stay in the car and wait a half an hour while she
sees another ferret in the parking lot w/ "suspected ECE" (I started
talking to the owner and the owner was a new ferret owner who'd switched
the ferrets food and wondered why it was having diarrhea...)  So she
finally comes over and does something resembling an examinatinon at the
car in the parking lot!  Tells me she thinks that Allie has the flu and
to continue the sub-q fluids and the hand feedings and that she should
start to perk up over the next two weeks.  Well, here we are two weeks
later and she isn't getting any better.  I stopped in to give the regular
vet a payment last week (I'm down to the last $80 that I owe her, so I'm
going to try to get Allie in to her office this week.) Anyway I'm telling
the great gal at the desk about the "other vet" (at this point I must
admit my description of the experience was much more profane than I
care to repeat here. )  So I tell the girls in the office what Allie's
symptoms are and she and the tech behind her both said that it sounds
exactly like insulinoma.  Somehow I trust their opinion more than the
other vet... I just couldn't believe that a vet would claim to treat
ferrets, but not allow them into their office.  That would be like a
patient coming to the hospital I work at and us telling them to wait in
their car and someone would be out to treat them.  Didn't seem like we
should have had to pay full price for an exam that was done in the front
seat of my car either.
 
In the meantime, another Ferret, Minky Boodle, has very quickly started
loosing her fur on her tail and back... She'll be needing Adrenal surgery
before KeeKee and probably really soon.  So in one months time I have two
adrenal ferrets and one possibly insulinomic that requires round the
clock care... I need a vacation!  I'll be so relieved when Jesus can get
back to work.
 
Until the hubby is able to work again I'm trying to scrape together as
much as I can and work all the overtime available to take care of
everyone.  I have a huge solid wood cage that we never use that I would
like to sell if anyone lives near Indianapolis, Indiana or would like to
drive here to pick it up.  (It's huge and HEAVY!  Took two football
players to get it off the truck and into the house!  It has wheels on it
now though so the hardest part would be loading and unloading it into
someones truck) It would look nice in a living room or family room.  It
was hand made by a carpenter friend of mine and is gorgeous.  It has
three levels and the top two come out.  (the one on the bottom was added
later and could be unscrewed and taken out if you want.  It's a thicker
and heavier piece of wood though so I bolted it down) It's on wheels so
you can roll it outside to clean it.  The inside is coated with nontoxic
polyurethane over nontoxic black paint and the outside is matte black
with silver knobs on the drawer.  There are a few scrapes on the paint
from where I've run it into the front door when taking it outside to
clean it, but I think I have some more of the paint downstairs that I
can touch it up.  The wire is about 1/2 by 1/2 square.  I can get some
pictures for you if you email me.  I'm at work right now and I want to
get this mailed out so I don't have the exact measurements offhand, but
I'd say the outside is about 5 feet high (including the drawer on the
bottom for ferret goodies and necessities) and it's about 2 1/2 feet
deep and 3 feet wide.  I'll measure it in the morning when I get home
and send another post with the exact measurements.  The guy that made it
had told me that if he were to make another one like it he would have to
charge almost $500 for the work and materials put into it, but I'm asking
for $300 OBO.  If you're interested email me and I'm sure we can work
something out.
[Posted in FML issue 4324]