Hi Everyone,
I wanted to share two stories here in the hopes that maybe it will help
others.  First let me applaud Dr Anna Edling at Horsham Vet. Hosp in
Horsham, PA for being a fantastic surgeon and healer of little beings.
Thank you Anna!!!
 
First there was Zeus....Zeus presented with an enlarged spleen.  I will
keep this short but after weighing every option and a grade 4+ enlarged
spleen we decided to have it removed.  He was anemic and not doing well
at all, losing weight and just could barely walk.  He first had a spleen
bx to make sure there was no lymphoma and then a bone marrow bx to make
sure his body could handle the removal of the spleen.  Everything checked
out and it was time to sch surgery.  This was over a 2mo period of time
where we saw this little guy not getting any better with just meds.  His
spleen was removed 3 weeks ago and he started to eat again and put on
weight.  He has something called hemolytic anemia where his body was
killing off its own red blood cells and she felt the spleen was having
something to do with it.  He was put on amoxi and pediapred post surgery
as well as prior to surgery he had pediapred.  His count at the day of
surgery was 17 when it should have been 40 and just last week it was up
to 35 which was his 3 week checkup so we are very pleased with that.  He
is now back with his main crew of ferrets and doing fantastic.  He runs,
chatters and dooks like he is a kit again.  It is amazing how these
little ones can bounce back.
 
Here is another miracle story.  Just one week ago our little boy Skylar
was stepped on by accident while I was coming down the stairs and his hip
was dislocated.  I was hysterical.  It was 6am in the morning so what is
a mom to do.  My husband had gone to work early and I called my mom
because I knew I could not drive I was just a mess.  He was just hopping
around but not acting in any pain.  As my dear friends reminded me at
least he was alive but what had I done to my baby.  It was an accident
but it happened and by sharing this story I hope that others will feel
that they are not alone when accidents happen and sometimes they can be
fixed.  We just took him right to the vet hoping to get in when they
opened since we are an hour away.  He was so good in the car not knowing
where he was going.  Anna was not in till noon so another lady vet saw
him and she was sure there were no fractures.  She took an x-ray and
being an x-ray tech I knew right away it was dislocated.  I went over
that x-ray with a fine tooth comb.  They wanted to keep him till Anna
came in.  I thought wow thankfully it is just a dislocation and they can
reduce it.  Nope my luck he needed surgery, another devastation for my
baby.  Last Thurs he had a femoral osteotomy where they remove the head
and neck of the femur, the large bone in the leg, and they form what is
called a false joint and can learn to walk again.  They do this on small
animals, cats and small dogs.  We kept him confined till the surgery
making sure to exercise him the best we could.  He was sad because he
was away from his buddies.  Mom took him for his surgery because I had
to work and no sooner did she get home(took over 2 hours due to traffic)
that she got the call he was done and awake.  Amazing....He is doing
extremly wonderful and is now running around on his little leg already
less than a week later.  It is as if he doesn't even miss the bone.  With
this surgery they need lots of exercise on a carpeted floor or something
with traction so that they can build up the muscle in the leg.  He is
only 1 1/2 yo so I am sure being young does help but Anna is fantastic
and I don't kno what I would have done without her the past few months.
My reg vet deals with ferrets but not to this extreme extent.
 
Just know there is always hope....
Love & angel hugs
Debbie
[Posted in FML issue 4909]