FERRET-SEARCH@LISTSERV.FERRETMAILINGLIST.ORG
|
|
Sender: |
|
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Date: |
Tue, 18 Feb 1992 07:35:33 -0500 |
Reply-To: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
I have not contributed very much to the Ferret Mailing list in
the past. I have been reading the mailing list for quite some
time though. I find the mailing list quite insightful and
useful. I want to contribute a story about my beautiful
sterling silver ferret whose name was Wolfe. Wolfe came to
me as an orphan through the The Ottawa Ferret Association
which I am an active member of. I brought him home in
November 1990. He had a pointy nose and kept my husband
and I entertained with his funny gestures. He loves coffee
and as soon as a cup of coffee would get cold enough he
would stick his whole face up to his ears into it, only
to come out brown and spray coffee everywhere. He was
always very active and always chatted away. The story has
a bit of a sad ending to it.
On December 15, 1991 we were about to get ready to go out
when I noticed that Wolfe seemed to have trouble keeping
his balance, and he was falling over while trying to get
across a room. We were quite concerned and called our
vet right away. We took Wolfe out to see the vet. He
was diagnosed with vestibular disease. It is an inner
ear infection which effects balance. Wolfe was given
two kinds of medication to try to correct the problem.
We were told that the headtilt could possible stay
for the rest of his life. Wolfe regai
and his headtilt was minimal. We thought he was going
to be okay. However on January 24, 1992, we noticed
that he seemed to be losing his balance once again.
I called the vet right away and set up an appointment
for the next morning. When we took Wolfe to the vet he was
given two types of medication for a longer period of time
in stronger doses. The vet suggested that if Wolfe did not
improve we may wish to think about putting him to sleep
because he would become a danger to himself and likely
end up falling and hurting himself. They had also x-rayed
his skull to make sure that there was nothing wrong with
his brain. We once again took Wolfe home and gave him
his medicine. However by the early morning of January 27
Wolfe was almost totally paralyzed on his left side. He
could not get up to get food or water. He was helpless.
He could not even chew food. We again took him to the
vet who told us that he was not going to get any better if
the medicine hadn't helped yet. He stated that the only
right thing to do was to put him to sleep. As sad as that
thought was, we knew that it had to be done. Wolfe had
become toatally helpless and would likely totally starve
in the long run. We agreed to put him down, through many
tears I might add. I guess I am writing this story for a
couple of reasons. The first is to let everyone know how
brave my beautiful Wolfe was, and the second to make
everyone aware of how serious inner ear infections can
be. Apparently they are very common in cats and rabbits
and usually require euthanasia. It seems the same can
now be said for ferrets. We love our ferrets very much,
they are our children. The healing process has been quite
long and painful. I wanted to ask a question though and that
is are sterling silvers more likely to get ill at an earlier
age? Are they a weaker breed for some reason? The reason
that I ask is that we had a sterling silver once who died
very suddenly for medical reasons at age eight months and
now Wolfe is dead at age one and a half. I have a five year
old sable and a six year old albino, both are as healthy as
can be, but I honestly have never had any luck with sterling
silvers and I am quite reluctant to get another one because
it hurts too much to lose them. I would be interested in
any information anyone has on this as well as vestibular
disease. Thank You for hearing my story.
[Our Silver Mitt, Toby, died at 10 months of lymphosarcoma.
He also had two sets of scent glands. Colours other than
sable or albino are frequently the result of long intensive
breeding programs, which just *might* accentuate some usually
rare genetic problems. Who knows?]
Lesley Guigue
Ottawa Ferret Association
[Posted in FML issue 0214]
|
|
|