i'm hoping for some good vibes and maybe a few good ideas, and
hopefully no chastising since this was one of those wretched accidents
that can happen, and after 13 years and a dozen ferrets for me, this
is a first (and hopefully the last...)

we're in the midst of of a ferret-crisis...tuesday morning upon rising
we found little pixie hanging from her twisted hind foot from one of
the upper hammocks in the ferret-cage (yes, a toenail got caught in
the fabric). a horror we've all read about here before that's easily
prevented but can still happen.

i seriously thought she was dead. cold, clammy, but somehow still
barely breathing. we got her to the nearest available vet and they
brought her back from death's door; her body temp was 90 degrees, she
was comatose; unresponsive. she's somehow miraculously pretty much back
to normal; eating-and-drinking, pooing-and-peeing, still wobbly and has
a front-paw twitch (neuro damage), but the bad news is her hind foot is
grossly swollen from being twisted and hanging from it, (like at least
5 times its normal size) and now we've got her on anti-inflammatories,
painkillers and antibiotics, soaking it and gently manipulating it,
letting her try and walk and use it (which she's been trying to do),
hoping the swelling subsides and we can save her foot. otherwise, she's
going to be a tripod-ferret the rest of her life, if she survives that
procedure. so we've been back-and-forth to the vet for the past 3 days,
and it's about 25 miles away, and yes, we're in the middle of a
blizzard here in colorado. and we don't have 4wd vehicles. :(

does anyone have any other advice they can offer on dealing with such
an injury?

per the vet there still seems to be blood flow to the area, it's just
horribly edematous and the skin is discolored and bruised-looking in
places and somewhat peeling/sloughing, but the vet feels that's more
from the swelling and hydrotherapy/drying of the skin from water than
necrosis/gangene...i've been lightly putting a very thin amount of pure
cocoa butter on it after soaking it to help with the drying/sloughing.
i just feel like i'm missing a vital piece of healing/help/therapy.
the bottom of her foot/pads look pink and normal, it's just the top of
the foot that is so awful looking; swollen up to the 'fetlock'. i feel
amputation is a last resort; should a person's foot need amputation
simply because they sprained their ankle? is the best analogy i can
come up with.

this whole thing has been just awful to deal with, and of course,
coming up with the money to pay for the vet bills..my partner was laid
off the beginning of september and my hours have been cut to barely
15-20 hours a week. 3 vet visits plus gas there and back twice a day
since tuesday was a chunk out of our rapidly dwindling savings we can
ill-afford, but we do what we can for our fur-babes, don't we?

so thank you in advance to anyone and everyone for anything they can
offer for advice/help/ideas, and sorry if this got rambly...i've gotten
precious little sleep since tuesday, virtually none. the strain and
worry about pixie and the danger of driving on the highways in this
blizzard over these last few days have been grueling. :)

sherrie, aka daoine o', the ferret queen

pixie, still being fierce and brave, staying in her carrier all alone.

burleigh and shay, missing their little cagemate.

and all those over the bridge...

[Posted in FML 6502]