Artie died late this afternoon. This morning his gums, palate etc were
very pale, and after several hours he was dead. I've done a lot of
crying today and am very very sad. Our vet is also sad. HE's a really
nice guy and I love the way he relates to our animals. Two days ago,
we really thought we had saved Artie. But then he began going downhill
again.

Dr Dawit will do a postmortem tomorrow (Sunday) or Monday. We think we
will see the same as with Ada and presumably as we would have seen w
Robert if we'd looked.

I once said on the FNL that Artie didn't have much of a personality.
Right after writing that I realized it was BS. His personality was
gentle. He was my biggest fert but never bullied any of the others.
HE was alpha but was not mean. When it came time to put new guys in
their places, he was methodical and never cruel.

He became depressed at one point in CAlif whe circumstances confined
them to their cage for a while, but I got him out of it. Since being
here he has been -- no, he *was* -- a playful guy.

He was grey with nice black eyes and a black nose. White on the end of
his tail. I miss him. When I saw him in the pet store I immediately
wanted him from the way his little neck curved. I put off getting him
because I already had four ferts, but I called the next day and drove
up to get him.

Dr Dawit is unhappy because he doesn't know enough about ferrets. All
we have at this point is the Fox text. Lately internet access has been
very spotty. And my US vet's been in England for a conference till a
couple of days ago. Someday we'll have several more references, but my
things are still awaiting Customs clearance.

Without diagnostic equipment or access to vet labs he's been struggling
to save my ferrets. We've been planning to start an NGO to set up a vet
lab and a diagnostic clinic in Addis -- neither of which exists here --
none, ZIP. This last death has given us a lot of impetus for it. We're
going to try to get him a visa to come to the US this summer to visit
vets who specialize in ferrets, and we both want to visit vet labs.

So I am going to post a separate request soon,askig everyone if they
know vets and labs that would help us by letting Dr DAwit come to see
them in action and to get guidance. We're also hoping for donations
of equipment or funds, but want to keep the two types of requests
separate. We can go through England or Frankfurt on the way to the US,
and while in the US, we can go to different states. Mass, Oregon, and
Calif are already plananed.

I am just exhausted with this loss. You know how it is -- you spend
days and nights with the ferret (or other pet or a person) and then
s/he is gone.

Since the sulfa cleared up the diarrhea in the other ferrets, and Artie
too for a while, we are assuming provisionally that coccidia was the
first thing that affected Artie andthat we have to protect the others
from reinfection. We feel as though we have most things under control,
but we wonder how to disinfect their outdoor pen. Also, is there a soil
test that could identify potential pathogens?

We have carpet in the elevated tunnels that lead to their outdoor pen.
Since it's outdoors, we can be rougher w it than w indoor carpeting. We
were going to spray it heavily w disinfectant, let it stand for a day
or two, thoroughly hose it, and let it dry. What do you think of that
approach?

This has been one hell of a nightmare. We are focusing as much as
possible on the future.

I'm having trouble accessing the net these days. When I was writing the
paragraph about disinfecting the outdoor pen we had today's third power
outage. Luckily I am using gmail and it automatically saves posts to
its server as you write them. Ethiopia currently gets its electriity fr
a hydo system, and rain has been way belw averagr for about a year. We
are now approaching (in a month or two) the rainy season. Anyway, now
is the seasonal water low, compounded by the lack of rain, and that's
given us lots of power outages -- some planned by the electro company
(run by the State) and some just random. After one a cuple of weeks ago
the computer got zapped. It took abt a week to get someone to come out
to recover the data on it and then reformat it.

Also, the phone coverage here in this neighborhood is wildly erratic --
no phone = no internet since we are on dialup. Broadband and a line of
our own costs abt $220/month.

Anyway, bla bla bla.. I'm trying to say that my emails might continue
to be spotty.

Thank you to all of you who wrote. I felt sort of as though I were
inviting a swarm of bees into my bed when I asked for advice, but
that's not how it's been. I'll write to each of you.

[Posted in FML 5948]