Hello,
 
I don't often post to the FML (only once or twice before) but I read it
every day and I am very grateful that it exists.
 
I wanted to ask all you fuzzy lovers out there if you could send some
prayers my way, because one of my little fuzzbutts needs them.  Winston,
a ferret we adopted from a rescue in Brooklyn, NY a little over a month
ago, has insulinoma and just underwent surgery on his pancreas last
night.  He's been through so much, and I am very worried that this new
stress on him might be too much.  Winston was originally found abandoned
in a stairwell by NYC animal control in an apartment building in
Brooklyn, and was rescued from the local kill shelter by the director of
the rescue we adopted him from.  The day that my boyfriend and I were to
adopt him, February 3rd, we were driving to the city to pick him up and
we got a phone call from the director, Sean, on our cell.  He had just
gotten home from work and Winston was very sick.  To make a long story
short(er), it turned out that Winston was adrenal, among other things,
and he underwent adrenal surgery.  That went well and we were able to
take him home the next month.  However, a few days after we brought him
home, Winston again became very lethargic, refused to eat anything and
began having low blood sugar incidents.  We rushed him to the vet one
Sunday evening in the middle of a snowstorm during one of those attacks,
and we found out that Winston probably had insulinoma.  Two weeks and a
lot of stress later, the Prednisone wasn't working and he seemed to be
getting worse (although he did have a lot of good days).  The day before
the surgery he crashed so bad that we thought we were going to lose him.
He was so bad that the vet couldn't even find a vein when they tried to
hook him up to IV, they had to administer dextrose orally.
 
My boyfriend and I have been taking turns for the past month waking up
every three hours during the night to check on him and try to get him to
eat a little bit.  Luckily, I work for a humane society and my boss has
been letting me bring him with me to work every day so I can keep an eye
on him and feed him.  We love him so much even though he's been with us
a short time, and if we lost him now it would break our hearts.  The vet
called us last night to let us know the surgery went well and that
Winston woke up fine, but of course only time will tell.  I've been awake
since 5AM, nervously waiting for the vet to open so I can call and find
out if he made it through the night.  He's been through so much in his
short life, and I'm praying that he's strong enough to get through this.
 
Thank you for listening and we appreciate any good thoughts and karma you
can spare. :)
 
Dani Warga and Mike Reynics
[Posted in FML issue 4847]