Roger, would LOVE to know more about the work of Erdman and Fox. What do you
mean by "cure"? The most amazing possibility is that you mean that Fox's long
search for a viral predisposer to lympho in ferrets has been found and that they
are working on possible immunizations and treatments using portions of protein
from said virus, retrovirus, etc. If so then their work is right up there with
some of the most advanced work on human cancers (about 20% of which seem to be
related to chronic viral infections). Alternatively they could be working on
chemo treatments which can tackle even lung based lympho, a treatment for a
possible viral predisposer itself, a way to tackle said virus in the environment
(a problem with Aleutians which I know Fox was considering at one point as being
implicated in lymphomas and which is hard as hell to get out of a home if it's
in ( I mean as in getting rid of any possible carrier animals, getting rid of
carpets and all bedding, washing all surfaces many times with bleach, and STILL
giving a 6 month quarantine, to only face the reality that lots of critters
carry it so it can drift on in again.). Any would be great news.
Most likely they won't say zip till they have their numbers hard and fast and
have already submitted a paper for review, but if you could get a few teasers it
would be great.
Tyler, it sounds like you are doing a damn fine job. Judging from what it took
to maintain Hjalmar and Fritter past the worst and get them eating again the
fact that you have her taking some on her own and can now get in 10 droppers on
top of that may well mean you're getting in what's needed as long as you feed
often enough. That her incision is healing well is a good sign. The body is
not stressed enough to divert it's energy from that healing. Isn't it horrid to
see them so thin? We also had to restart Hjalmar after his surgery; he got to
the point where his skin not only showed his ribs but it wrapped around and
UNDER the last rib. It took a little while but the mush got him back up to
normal weight which he then retained. You may want to add a few extra calories
and nutrients by dissolving Nutrical in water since Ayla is drinking well.
We agree about ferret owners being great people -- the kind which can be relied
on when the chips are down. Our vets have told us that they find ferret owners
to mostly be very concerned individuals who are ready to provide an extreme
level of nursing care, and that because so little is known about ferret health
they find that ferret owners are often much better informed than the owners of
other animals whose health care needs are generally better understood by the
average vet.
Our ferrets are still having post-storm nightmares. They were VERY worried
before it hit. The only time we saw them worse was a few years ago in a summer
storm when all of them started screaming at the tops of their lungs. I looked
out the back window an saw a funnel trying to form.
(Our only real storm worry is that an aunt and uncle are still missing since the
storm. They were supposed to be in a very bad hit area of Florida in their
motor home, but may have taken the warning seriously and moved on to an area
which is still having trouble with phones. That's our hope. Otherwise we only
had a bit of an ice dam in the pipes and a 3' cube of ice encapsulating part of
the car which had to be carefully removed with rock hammer and chisel --
delicately so as to not concuss or dislodge essentials. How did everyone else
make out?)
Re: training the deaf. A deaf friend told me that to get his attention when he
was little his parents would stomp the floor hard so he felt the vibration.
Then they used other means to say what was wrong.
Never heard of trauma induced deafness in ferrets nor can I imagine a
physiological mechanism for deafness from early loss of mother, though I do
expect that ferrets which get little human attention may be less inclined to pay
attention to owners. There are a number of genetic, disease, abuse, accident,
and other potential causes, though.
Re: caging: except for our massively inbred little girl who is literally
retarded and has a number of other problems as well (such as severe allergies,
massive production of histamines -- perhaps not all allergy related, and
acrondoplasic dwarfism) so is likely to bite strangers from fear or from
mis-reading of her wacky body language, and is not even safe with the other
ferrets we have NEVER had a biting problem or regular misbehavior (except for
carefully mis-placed turds which BELONG where we are too stupid to understand
they belong to properly mark our territory). Nor are our critters stressed-out.
They live in their cages (read safe dens) for 18 to 20 hour a day and will
happily put themselves back in when tired or if something like an approaching
storm is frightening. They would hardly go happily or for protection to a place
of stress. Ruffle is our exception, but let's face reality -- a retarded animal
of any type is far more of a challenge and more easily frightened. We have to
control her environment more carefully, that's all -- including taking extra
careful care to be massively consistent with her. She has learned a startling
amount (and regularly has to learn it over and over) and is gentle as can be
with Steve and me.
Katie, sorry about your laparoscopy, and if you were already attached to your
fetus, then , please, accept our condolences. Sometimes it can be a very
sorrowful situation to deal with although far too few realize that.
U.Penn and AMC should have veterinary optholmologists. In southern N.J. , below
Trenton there is Dr. James Clinton whom we used for Hale's problems (eye bitten
through by canine of male during mating while with a breeder, and Sjogrens), but
that was about 8 years ago so we don't even recall the town. I know he said
then that one N.C. breeder had stock so inbred that the majority had cataracts
by the age of 1.
'Chopper (Helicopter) has now discovered how to run the camcorder. "Big button.
Push hard." (The last was some attempt at her thoughts.) She amazed Steve the
other day. She and I have a "Choppy grab" game where she holds my hand with her
"hands" and I lift her (strong arms on this one -- she climbs anything). I was
in a Balans Tripose chair, a sort of recliner, and she looked at me so I said "
'Choppy grab Mommy foot. "Choppy come up see Mommy." then put my foot down.
She dashed over, immediately wrapped her "hands" around the edges, and I lifted
her up to me. It was the first time we ever considered that variant. Even
Ruffy knows some body part names, and if you get her attention and ask "Where
ferret belly?" when she plays with the toy ferret, she'll dump it on its side
and politely bump the belly, but ask her "Where ferret nose?" and she'll bite
the nose for all she's worth.
Recently, while mourning Hjalmar I was cuddling Meltdown while I cried and she
became very concerned so I said "Mommy wraak wraak Hjalmar" We use that term
for cry or sad as we interpret them since that's how ferret babies cry.
Meltdown began to whimper when I mentioned Hjalmar and we hugged and cried
together (Meltdown whimpering) for maybe 5 or ten minutes. Then she reached up
an gently and licked off my tears.
Johnnie and Yoko in the brief case sounds like great fun. Does it have a zipper
they open? A few months ago Meltdown discovered how to open zippers and NOTHING
is too sacred for that to be done (fair warning to any who visit before this
game becomes to mundane for her to continue).
You know what gets me? When there is a new play noise, and you really want to
find out what they are doing, but as soon as you get close enough to see all you
find is that each and every one of them is looking up at you with innocent,
angelic eyes.
Magic carpet ride sounds great!
All of our's hate snow with the exception of Spot who loves to dance, prance,
dig, and burrow in it. Meeteetse acts like it's something best left to the
nether world.
All our best wishes, Sukie, Steve, Meltdown, Ruffle,
the Helicopter ('Chopper), Spot, and Meeteetse
[Posted in FML issue 0440]
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