We lost Abby last night--actually early this morning.  She was our first
ferret--she was a Christmas present to me from Heather in 2000.  Her full
name was Abigail von Girlie the Christmas Ferret.  She was a silver with
a mottled nose--we called her Chocolate Chip Nose.  She loved it whenever
we would run away from her, she liked to chase after you, weasel war
dancing all the way.  She gave kisses constantly.  She was the Alpha of
the group and the sole reason why we have always had to split our ferrets
into two cages.  She was always the social one--the one we could take
places knowing that she would be a well behaved girl.
 
Last summer we took her into the vet because we could tell something was
going on in her belly.  She had a huge spleen, so big it folded over on
itself, and our vet thought she probably had some sort of lymphoma going
on.  We werent going to take any heroic measures (ie surgery) so we
decided to just make sure she was comfortable.  She had been steadily
losing weight during the past couple weeks, but she was still eating.
She was tiring very easily and sleeping alot.  She was still giving
kisses and seemed alert.  The last couple days, she seemed to be having
looser stools so we took her into the vet on Saturday.  They saw a
little bit of Clostridium in her fecal exam and gave her an
antibiotic/anti-diarrheal.  We discovered that she loved Tender Vittles
and she ate a bunch of them on the way home, as well as drank plenty of
water.  She was seeming to bounce back.
 
Last night we went to a church function that didnt end until midnight.
When we got home, she was hanging out of her hammock, which ordinarily
isnt unusual, but I felt like something was wrong.  She was lock-jawed,
which has happened before with other ferrets, usually when they have
insulinoma episodes.  We rubbed Karo syrup and sugar water on her gums
and held her as we waited to see what woud happen.  In our experiences
with insulinoma, it can sometimes take 15-30 minutes to bring them
around.  I noticed Heather had her eyes closed and was praying and I did
the same, mostly praying that she would not have awful seizures like
Peanut did.  When I opened my eyes, she took about two more breaths and
then she was gone.  I am so sad, but not nearly as sad as I thought I
would be.  I am just so relieved that she didnt suffer horribly.  And I
am grateful that she got to go on one more car ride yesterday in the
sunshine (she loved that).  We had her cagemates say goodbye to her and
tomorro
 
Losing Abby comes just a little over a week after tragically losing
George.  We are also in the midst of trying to close on a house and
packing and not knowing if the close will come through before our lease
here is up.  We so wanted Abby to live long enough to see the new house,
but I know that she will be there with us anyway, along with all the
others who have gone before her.  This will be the first time that the
amount of living ferrets we have equals the amount of passed on ones we
have.
 
Heather and Becky and the Magnificant Seven: Chunky, Farty, Annie, Bob,
Digger, Weasie and Holly
 
Missing Ally, Sleepy, Peanut, Mialey, Egan, George and Abby Doodle
[Posted in FML issue 4823]