Hello All!
 
This is our first Journal and we have exciting updates to share w/you
all.  For those who were not sure of what happened w/Mom, we will explain
the best way we can.
 
On Thursday (May 11th) Grandma Susie came over for a visit to check us
out.  She had hoped to figure out the colors but she was shocked to see
that not one of us has Mitts!  Grandma Susie shared a recipe w/Grandma
Darcy to get us started on eating on our own and to help Sierra out with
the feedings.  We love the mush but prefer Mom's milk!  Susie did check
out Mom's nipples and she did confirm she had mastitis so Grandma Susie
called the vet to get antibotics for Mom.
 
On Saturday, Mom continued the warm compresses on Mom and when she went
to express milk, most of the nipples were squirting milk and got Mom
several times!  LOL The firmness of the nipples were getting smaller and
Grandma was pretty sure we caught it in time and the antibotics were
working.
 
On Sunday a.m., when Grandma took Mom out fo the cage she did notice that
Mom was not feeling good and when she looked at the nipple she saw one
side looking somewhat on the darker shade of pink (looking like a fresh
bruise), Grandma knew that the mastitis had returned.  She also confirm
that Mom's milk was drying up and that she was not giving enough milk to
us so she went off to the petstore to get milk replacer for them.  Mom
continued to do the warm compresses and by late evening Grandma notice
the coloring had changed darker so I called the vet to bring her in
first thing in the a.m.
 
Monday a.m., Grandma got our human sister off to school and off she went
with Mom to the vet.  The vet confirmed mastitis and wanted to put her on
aggressive antibotics and fluids to control the spread of it.  Grandma
went back to check on me at noon, and Mom had appeared to be making a
complete change for better from this a.m.  The vet did call us around
5:30 to inform us of her condition and said that he wanted to continue
the antibotics and to see what happens in the morning and to call back.
 
Tuesday a.m., Grandma called the vet and got the message that the
condition hadn't changed but wanted to continue the antibotics until this
afternoon.  Said that she will go into surgery this afternoon to be
spayed and a mammary gland removal.  Grandpa called Grandma and told her
to get down to the vet and that the news wasn't good so off to the vet
around 3:30 and the vet did start off w/the good news.  Here is what he
said......
 
"Sierra had a good heart rate and blood pressure was steady.  She did
very well in surgery.  I was really confident in her recovery!  When they
started to take her off anesthesia, her heart stopped and they were
unable to revive her.  She passed away Tuesday afternoon.  "
 
When Mom got mastitis she was weak and then she was not feeling good.
She had a slight temp.  but not horrible which the vet did believe she
will be ok.
 
Grandma has taken on the task since Sunday to feed us the mush to help
Sierra along.  Since Mom went to the vet on Monday, Mom has been
handfeeding us every 5 hours and has been doing it ever since.
 
Now our week adventure w/o Mom.
 
We have been eating mush and love it!  All of us love it except Red Hob
(Kit #4).  Red prefers the milk replacer that we have been on since
Sunday evening so Grandma and Grandpa work with Red to get him to take
the mush.  Grandma has been acting as Mom, helping us by stimulating us
to go potty.  Grandma does a lot of cuddling w/us, cleaning their cages
fairly often so we continue to thrive.  Every feeding time, Mom checks
on our eyes to make sure they are getting puffy.  A sign that we got the
tainted milk from Mom and need to be put on antibotics.  Happy to say we
are all healthy!
 
Kit #3 has one eye open for a few days now.  He is the traveler of the
bunch.  Mom has introduced ground ferret food into a dish in the cage so
we can all eat at our own "time".  Happy to say that we are eating that
too.  We are all gaining grams so Grandma & Grandpa have been doing a
good job making sure we are all fed our fill.
 
We have just begun to start playing so Grandma takes the time after
feeding them to play/interact w/ them and we love it.  Grandma also
loves this time too.
 
May 20th, we got to go w/Grandma to Great Grandma's house for a visit.
Grandma Susie was there and we got to go stay the night w/ her.  We will
be w/ Grandma Susie for 5 days.  Grandma Susie is helping Grandma Darcy
out because she needs a breather for a few days.  Grandma Susie will
continue to weigh them and she will email them to Grandma Darcy so she
posts it up on the website for you all to watch us grow.  Finally, we got
our answer......we are Sables.  We are the splitting image of our Dad!
 
We will say goodbye for now and we will do this again next week and share
our exciting story with you about our stay w/ Grandma Susie.
 
Until then.....
 
Sierra's Angels
[Posted in FML issue 5250]