Sarahferret, if you read this, can you greet Mr. Peepers for me...

Well, it's been a hard year. First Angel with lymphoma. Then Frejya
a week later. Then Mr. Peepers passed away at the vet last night,
overnight.

Still no clue what happened. The vet and I fully expected him to make
it through the night. He has offered a free necropsy.

No long goodbye, no goodbye at all, since I thought he was doing okay.
My fiance got to say goodbye, though. He snuck into the room yesterday
morning and said bye to him as he lay in the "ferret trunk"....I cut a
whole in a trunk of mine and put blankets and sheets in for them to all
hide in and sleep in. It's more half a toy chest now, half bed.

So he said his and I didn't even know it. I was so upset. The vet
didn't call me when they opened to let me know he was gone. It was
around 8:30am when I called, thinking things were fine. I suspect
even if I had waited, I would not have recieved a call. Talk about
initiative.

My own work sent me home for being teary-eyed. When you work at a vet
and get a shock like that, it is kinda hard to go to work and see
everyone else's pets....plus there was a sick ferret there in ICU (this
is at a different vet).

The day before, Peepers hopped out of his hammock, hot and dehydrated.
I don't understand what happened. He was on lupron, after having
unsuccessful adrenal surgery....he had a bloodpanel done and it seemed
he might get better or at least stabilize with fluids. They put glucose
in him (he was 75, but that's kinda here nor there since he hadn't
eaten anything for a whole day most likely laying there) and then to
get that kind of call, was horrible. But when we were waiting to take
him to the vet, my fiance slept on the couch with his hand in Mr.
Peeper's cat bed, with him tucked in....before that, he held Peepers
to his chest in a blanket...and Peepers of course "did his business"
on him....and he didn't care. This from Mr. Clean....he was like, "who
cares" and I wiped it up and he just kept holding him. Eventually when
it came time for bed he took the shirt of and threw it away.

I felt so bad for him this morning telling him he was gone...he wanted
him to die at home, if he was going to die. I still don't know what
happened. I went back to the vet to say bye, and they had kept him in
his carrier. For a sick ferret that is not right....the carrier had a
hammie but how is a sick one going to get out and get to water or food
even if he could? I know for a fact that he didn't need fluids because
he was very hydrated with LRS, and that he didn't need to eat...but to
me, I thought they would put him in a kennel so he could stretch out.
I hope he was comfortable. I wish I had been there.

Mr. Peepers was one-of-a-kind, an only, with a mate that is years older
than him, that he drove out of his cage by constantly ear-sucking on
her. In his last days he started peeing more all over the place, which
I attributed to him running out of his lupron, so I thought his marking
was going back into effect. He was on a four month depot. Could it have
been related to this running out that killed him? I don't understand. I
thought the lupron only helped symptoms.

He had adrenal surgery and his bad adrenal tumor was cryoed in Sept.
2006. Then four months ago I put him on Lupron.

If anyone knows, or has any ideas, please let me know. Even if it's my
fault, I would like to know. They mentioned cushings, but I figured
since the adrenal surgery didn't work, I was going to put him on
Lupron. It was only one adrenal that bad - and when he was at the vet
yesterday, the doctor who is really good at feeling adrenals said there
was nothing. The necropsy will tell me/us more, of course. Last week
too he lost all his back fur.....

Thanks and hug your fuzzies....

Laryssa

[Posted in FML 5780]