I am so sorry that I haven't written for such a time.  I started working
and then I moved with a one week notice.
 
On Mon. after I moved on Sat., I noticed Faith was really sick.  She hadn't
been eating much duck soup, but we thought that she had started eating the
dry food.  Her activity level was as good as it had been since I started
her on the duck soup and Pediapred.  In the mess of moving on Sat. and
Sun., I missed 2 doses of her medication.  Mon. morning she was asking like
she was moments away from going into a seizure (She had insulinoma).  I
tried to give her some honey, but I was having trouble getting into her, so
I mixed a little in one teaspoon of duck soup.  After awhile she was doing
better, but I was stilled worried.
 
I took her to her vet.  I mentioned about taking a blood test and the vet
said that we both knew what it would show.  She stated that if she didn't
improve in a day or so, to bring her back in and she would take blood then.
I took her back on Wed. and they drew a complete blood panel.  Usually they
can run it within 15 min., but the machine wasn't working right, so they
had to send it out.  I was supposed to go to work on Thur. morning, but I
had a seizure.  When I came out of it, I called Tom to come and help me so
I could get to the kitchen to feed Faith.  The phone rang and it was the
vets office instructing me to get Faith into the office ASAP.  Thank
goodness I wasn't at work or I would have missed the call.  Tom took us
right to the office.  She said the blood test showed that her blood sugar
was over 500 and that her kidneys had started to shut down.  She asked to
keep her so she could try to get it down.
 
I asked her if she was able to get the sugar down, was there a chance that
her kidney's would start working again and she said yes.  I called that
afternoon and Dr. Lennex said the blood glucose had come down but it still
was high.  I paged her that evening, like she instructed me to, and she
said she had given her 15 units of insulin and couldn't get it down for
nothing.  She let me know that it wasn't looking very good for Faith.
 
At 6:15 a.m., Dr. Lennex called to let me know that she had passed away.
She said she had given her a total of 22 units of insulin, but Faith was
just to week to fight.  She said that she had slipped into a coma during
the night, and had passed away sometime between 4:30 and 6:00 a.m.  I
never thought I would never see her alive again, when I left her on Thur.
morning.  I was making plans on going to the office to see her, so she
would know that I hadn't abandon her.
 
I live in an apartment, so I don't have any place to have buried her.  I
wanted to take her out and bury her on the extra lot we have were my parents
are buried, but Tom was afraid that we would get arrested, so we didn't.
On Sat. I took all the babies to the vets office to say goodbye to Faith.
I took one of her blankets for them to wrap her in.  I held her cold body
and talked to her for a long time, crying the whole time.  I even got up
the nerve to pat her little head.  She looked like she was just sleeping.
When I could let go of her, I laid her down on the floor and let the others
out one at a time.  Of course, Hope spent the most time with her.  I got
Hope 1 day after I got Faith.  When they were all done, I picked Faith back
up and promised I would see her at the rainbow bridge and we would be
together forever.  When I was finished, I took her back to the receptionist
and went back to the exam room, to wait on Dr. Lennex as she had said she
wanted to talk to me before I left.  She asked since Faith died of such a
rare disease, could she do a narcropsy and of course I said yes.  Faith
would of wanted to help any one she could.  That was just her personality.
 
I have lost dogs before, but I didn't feel this much pain with either of
them.  I love her so much.  She was my first, even if just by a day, so she
was special.  She was so smart and she knew exactly how to get my attention
and what she wanted.  She would scratch, or as we called it scritch, on the
cage floor when she wanted attention, whether out to be held or play or
wanted a snack.  She would start out real light.  If I ignored her, she
would get a little louder.  Then if I still ignored her, she would start
using both front paws and doing it as fast and hard as she could do it.  It
was so cute.  I really miss her scrtiching.  She also loved to give me
kisses.  She was my Kissy Baby.
 
On Sun. Generosity gave me several kisses.  She never does that.  It was
just like Faith had told him to take over as kissy baby and take care of
me.  Faith loved her Uncle Toby.  Every time he came in, she would start
scritching, for him to come and say hi and hold her.  If she was playing,
she would run to him to pick her up for only a minute then.  I hope to be
able to build a memorial page on a web site.  I am so upset, I left a cam
recorder tape at my sister's.  She mailed it back to me in a bit box she
mail something else in, and I didn't know, so it was thrown out.  It had
some really cute pictures of her.  I am going to try to capture them of
the VCR tape I had put them on.
 
Please those of you who have insulinomic ferret have their sugar checked
often.  Not many vets know that there are two different growths that can
grow on a ferrets pancreas.  The second causes diabetes, and it can sneak
up in no time.  Dr. Lennex has only seen 2 other cases and on the first
case the ferret passed before she even could get the blood work back.  I
don't want to scare you, but it can happen.  It can be controlled if it
is diagnosed, but it is very hard, since they have both kind of tumors on
their little pancreases.  I will right more about it as soon as I have
anything new.  Dr. Lennex did a narcropsy on Faith, and promised to let me
know what she found out.  She actually called Dr. Susan Brown to find out
what was going on with her second case.  Dr. Lennex asked me to try to
inform all my ferret owned people of the possibility of it happening,
especially since a lot of book say it cannot happen.  Please watch your
babies closely.
 
Phyllis and the Wigglies, Hope, Charrity, Generosity and Grace
Always in Loving Memory of Faith
[Posted in FML issue 2510]