Hello all:

You'll be reading this post on our dear Mandie's third birthday,
Halloween. She had a 6 mm. tumor removed from her left hind foot on
Monday. It was not a skin cancer, nor any form of cyst, but rather a
true tumor forming from the meat of her foot. Recovery isn't a fine
way to spend a birthday, and we certainly dislike having to put one so
young through two surgeries -- the other being her successful adrenal
surgery at the age of 19 months -- but our "Manda Bear" is doing
beautifully and should soon rejoin her cagemates at our secondary
facility.

As for the other members of the ferret hoard, I can truly say that last
week's vet visit was a circus! Six ferrets at our new vet -- implants,
blood sugar testing, exams, and a new volunteer to horrify! The only
noteworthy discovery other than planning Mandie's surgery was finding
that our totally-blind elderly Lady was very insulinoma with a glucose
reading of 39! We've now got an AlphaTrak to use when poking at our
furry kids, after a bit of research and chat with the vet over the
differences in the ratio of plasma to red blood cells in human and pet
blood; look it up sometime. Yes, we have more than six ferrets, but
just not enough funds to take everyone in to see Dr. Lenzo right now.
Our kind new doc is looking into those new FDA Suprelorin regs for us,
so, if we are blessed with our Ferret Giving Tree santas, our kids can
buy up implants for those who didn't get one this time or need one more
often than the usual nine months.

On the personal front, I am coping with the death of my mother and the
shelter's co-founder as well as might be expected. If I stay busy, then
I can't hear myself screaming inside my head as much. Thank you for all
the thoughtful emails and telephone calls; you've brightened my days
with smiles and the comfort of friendship.

Remember that the Ferrets at Heart ferrets can be found on the 2012
Ferret Giving Tree and on the July, August, and November pages of the
2013 Famous Ferrets of the FML calendar. I'll update the website with
the current photos from the Giving Tree and others as soon as I can
concentrate well enough to play in computer code.

Lori of Ferrets at Heart

[Posted in FML 7596]