Dr.   Williams,
 
We were very sorry to hear your loss of Oscar this past week.  I know he must
have lead a very long and happy life with you and your wife.  There seem to
be so many of our guys passing on recently.  As you know, we recently lost
one of our shelter ferrets, Mishka to some unknown desease (Dr Dutton sent
you tissue samples for analysis).  It seems to hurt no matter how little or
how much time you've spent with them.  They love life so much, it's a shame
they have such little time.
 
All of our guys have now come down with colds; starting with the ones that
stayed home from the AFA Expo, and now it's spread to those we took AND to
all of the humans in the family (including me).
 
We have found that the children's sudafed (1/2 cc) does seem to help them
rest without sneezing themselves awake every minute or so.  We found that if
we put the sudafed in the palm of our hand and cover it with a "pump" of
diluted (with olive oil) ferretone, they lick it right up.  Much less chance
of aspiration of the sudafed.
 
I noticed a post in yesterday's issue of the FML about a young kit with
bloody stool.  I believe the post was from Dartmouth, NH (?).  We had a  NH
club member who recently lost one of hers to something that sounds very
similar.  Mishka had a dark tarry stool (not fresh blood) a few days before
she died.  Did you notice anything in the tissue samples that might indicate
what she died of?  She too was current in her distemper vaccinations (due for
an update the month she died.)  Her illness started with what seemed like a
respiratory problem, extreme lethargy, dehydration, dark tarry loose stool.
 She seemed to recover somewhat then developed a fever.  She was put on an IV
with antibiotics.  Fever broke but she died that evening.
 
Dick Bossart
[Posted in FML issue 1105]