Hello All.

The great news is that Blizzard's spleen was not cancerous nor
infectious. He did have a blood clot that was blocking his artery
in his spleen cutting off blood to the organ and slowing killing it.
That was Monday during surgery.

Tuesday, he was like a new ferret. Feeling great and actually running
around!

Wednesday things changed drastically for the worse. His hands and feet
would no longer work. He went to the bathroom where he laid. His eyes
showed that he was out of it. We did not know what happened literally
overnight. Blizzard did give up some of his energies to aid (Amy's)
Spooky for his recovery. We continue to wish him the best.

Thursday, emergency visit to Dr. Kawasaki. He pretty much confirmed
kidney failure. Gave us 2 new meds to start our little spleenless
Blizzard on: Tumil K and Epikatin, in the hopes this will assist
getting the toxins out of his body.

Friday evening, spoke with Dr. Wardell. She is not surprised that his
hands and feet don't work as this is consistent with kidney failure.
For the first time ever, we believe we witness a partial black stool.
Today, Saturday, his stools, although still runny, appear not to have
the blackness to them.

Amazing that we put him through a serious surgery that was successful
only to have his kidneys fail him 1.5 days later. My wife and I watch
and help him 24 hours a day unless we fall asleep. The 3 of us are
exhausted.

Blizzard is our first and only ferret. We have never gone through this
before and we feel like we are in the dark here doing what little our
instinct says to do in caring for our little man. I only wonder what
our little cuteness is feeling and thinking now. I hope he knows we
are trying to help him and that he is not in too much discomfort.

The good news is that he is eating and drinking well once we bring
the food and drink over to him. In addition, he did walk on his own
approximately 1.5 feet. It was a step in the right direction.

Also, he does a lot of drooling when either eating or drinking as well
as getting his chin full of food and water.

Does anyone have any experience in this situation or with those two
drugs? If so, please share them with me no matter how negative/positive
they may be.

Thank you for your continued support, thoughts, energies and prayers
for Blizzard's recovery. Incredible to think that less than 2 weeks
ago we were hiking through the woods and running around in our front
yard. We were hoping to be out of the woods and into the sun on this
one. Neither doctor has heard of a kidney transplant or dialysis for
ferrets. He is still with us and neither he nor us has given up trying
to figure out how to cure him. We learned today and we send our
thoughts and prayers to Critter Camps Anastasia, in the wishes she
passed safely to the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.


PS. I know I have not responded yet to everyone who sent their well
wishes. Neither Blizzard nor I have taken you for granted. I will
certainly thank everyone once I get caught up! Thank you for your
thoughts!

Mark Sonder, CSEP
Father of Blizzard the ferret
Chief Entertainment Officer
Mark Sonder Productions, Inc.
540-636-1640
<http://www.marksonderproductions.com>
author, "Event Entertainment and Production" (Wiley 2004)

[Posted in FML 6051]