Hi all,
 
I lurk on here more than I post, but I wanted to share some sad news
with you.  Our ferret Sleepy passed away last night (Sunday, 2/29).  We
got him two years ago from Widget's Halfway House in Winter Haven, FL.
He had been found wandering around outside in Tampa in a rainstorm.  He
seemed to be about 5 years old when we got him.  We took him home and
helped to fatten him up and get him used to the rest of our gang.  He was
never super playful (he definitely lived up to his name!), but every once
in awhile, he would play with his tennis ball.  He also loved a feather
duster we had.  Many times we laughed watching him pick up the feather
duster by the stick and run to stash it in his hidey hole (a cardboard
box with different openings cut out).  Unfortunately, because of the
length of the feather duster, he could never get it where he wanted it,
so he would just shake it furiously by the feathers and his job was
complete.
 
We had noticed Sleepy slowing down recently.  He was having problems
keeping weight on, so we took him to the vet last week.  His glucose
reading was 40 (ouch!) and the vet put him on prednisone.  She could also
feel a mass on one kidney and his heart beat so hard you could see it
pulsing in his neck.  So she felt that inaddition to the insulinoma, he
had lymphoma and cardiomyopathy as well.  After he started on the meds
last week, he had a drastic improvement, but it didnt last long.  We went
to Sarasota on Saturday and we took him and his two cagemates with us.
We have a little ferret pouch that I carried him around in all day.  He
wasnt doing well yesterday (Sunday) and we made a point to spend lots of
extra time with him, holding him in our arms and talking to him and
petting him.  I am so thankful that we did that.  By this time, he was
making no effort to get to the litterbox and had urinated on me several
times.  He was also not taking any AD or water from a syringe.  We were
going to take him to the vet Monday morning and were having trouble
deciding if we should put him to sleep.  We're thankful that the decision
was taken out of our hands and he died peacefully and hopefully without
pain.  We took him to the vet this morning to have him cremated.  He will
be in an urn on our entertainment center, right next to my childhood dog,
Trixie, whose ashes I've had for 16 years.  We're sad, but I would say
more relieved than anything that he's no longer suffering with his
various illnesses.
 
Ironically, we almost lost another ferret on Thursday.  Our ferret Peanut
went into a coma from having such low blood sugar.  We had already
scheduled an appt for him for Friday, as I was starting to suspect
insulinoma.  The only indication that he was still alive was that he was
breathing.  He was non responsive otherwise.  He spent the night at an
E clinic and was doing much better when we picked him up Friday morning.
We took him to our regular vet and his glucose was 30--even after being
on IV glucose all night at the E clinic!  Now he is on Prednisone and is
being heavily supplemented with AD, which he is eagerly eating on his
own.  He is continuing to do well, however, I think because he is younger
than Sleepy and the insulinoma is apparently his only problem right now.
In the middle of all this stress, we spent all day Friday buying a
second car (finally!), running back and forth from the dealership to the
insurance company, so its been a stressful 4 days!  The sad thing is,
Peanut and Sleepy have been cagemates ever since Peanut came to us (also
from Widget's) a year and a half ago.  I brought Peanut out to see Sleepy
last night after he had passed and Peanut seemed more concerned with
wandering away than saying goodbye to his buddy.  Luckily, we got Egan a
month ago and she had been sharing a cage with Peanut and Sleepy.  She
and Peanut seem quite bonded, so I am hopeful that Peanut will be able
to cope with the loss okay, especially since he is still sick himself
right now.  So far he seems unaffected.  Sleepy was such a good boy.  A
particularly cute memory I have of him was several months ago when our
blaze Bob decided to grab Sleepy by the scruff and drag him into his
hidey hole.  Sleepy looked so surprised, but just layed still except for
his back feet paddling along behind him.  Sleepy, like most ferrets,
always had other things better to do than spend time with his mommies.
Seems that he was always trying to get away from us...and I guess now
he's gotten his wish.  I would like to picture him up in heaven, healthy,
happy and free of pain forever.  And this time, with a feather duster
that will fit perfectly into his hidey hole.
 
Becky and Heather and the Magnificent Seven (formerly the Awesome Eight):
Abby, Annie, Bob, Peanut, Farty Pants, Chunky and Egan.
Missing Sleepy...2/29/04
Still Missing Ally...1/5/02
[Posted in FML issue 4439]