Jerry (http://www.astro.umd.edu/~wls/images/jerry.jpg) is one of our two
original ferrets: Ben & Jerry.  She has been ailing lately, with signs of
adrenal disease, insulinoma, and impaired kidney function.  On Tuesday she
began to refuse to eat even nutrical and started vomiting.  After a
hydration injection she would take nutrical again if hand-fed.  She had been
scheduled for adrenal surgery on Friday Oct 4.
 
Last night (Wednesday) we started to force-feed her Fran Wiles' recipe of
duck soup.  After the first two syringes she started to lap up the third.
During play-time she even put a total of 2 lids away before finding a place
to sleep.  Then she got up again and put one more away.  Putting lids away
is Jerry's special things which none of the others do.  When brought back to
her cage she even tried to eat a bit of kibble.  However this morning she
was rather dopey again and fought the feeding.  After talking with Dr. Weiss
again I decided that on Friday instead of surgery we would have her kidney
functions tested again.  If they are about the same as when they were tested
two weeks ago then we will reschedule the surgery.  If the kidney functions
have become a lot worse then we will not subject her to surgery and try to
make her comfortable for as long as she has.  Clare says that she is
starting to limp, that her hind legs are getting week.  I really hope that
her recent turn for the worse has not been due to kidney failure and that
with a bit of force feeding we can build her back up.  Only time will tell.
 
--- Bill Sebok
[Posted in FML issue 1711]