Thanks so much for the ideas, suggestions and just plain good wishes for
Ben that we've received today.  There are many good ones and they're being
checked out to see what will work for him.
 
Ben hasn't had a very good day and Barbara will be taking him back to
Dr. Kemmerer tomorrow.  Hopefully, Dr. Bennet at the Vet School will be
available also.  Poor guy has staining and/or urine "leaking" and a
"yellowish" discharge from his nose.  The foul odor as you get close to
his face has grown worse.
 
We took a couple of pictures of Ben and the gaping hole in his palate.
Note that part of the tongue is missing also.  You can see in his eyes that
he doesn't feel well at all.  Mike Janke has put them on his Ferret Health
Care web site along with a picture of a "normal" ferret mouth.  Please take
a look and if you think of someone who may help, please send them the url.
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ben.htm
 
The site and pictures are a perfect example of why you don't leave ferrets
unsupervised!  I know *most* don't chew on cords but hey, they're ferrets.
Always have to try something new.
 
It's unbelievable that this happened LAST JUNE and the owners just noticed
the hole in his palate.  Told me they thought it was just "discolored"
and there was a PIN hole.  In my opinion, if this had been taken care of
promptly, there would have been enough tissue to work with for skin grafts
but the owners said they could not afford medical care.  Too much tissue
has died off now to make skin grafts a solution.  I worry what will happen
to the other two ferrets if they get sick.  Then the woman had the nerve
to ask if they could pay an adoption fee when he's well and get him back!
This is one of the times I just want to bang my head against a brick wall
and when you feel you just can't take any more of being a shelter and
seeing so much abuse, suffering, neglect and plain stupidity.  The day
before I got Ben, I picked up two strays at two different times that were
found three houses apart.  Possibly just dropped off at flea market close
by.  Big, beautiful ferrets, filthy and covered with fleas.
 
Ben is one of the sweetest ferrets you'll ever meet and it's a d@$#* shame
that pure neglect has caused such suffering for him for months and IF
something can be done, he'll have more suffering.  How he's managed to eat
and get some weight back on is a miracle in itself but he looks as if he's
starting to drop a bit now.
 
We'll put updates on the web site when we get an answer for Ben.  There's
lots of good ferret medical information on Mike's site so it's a good idea
for those of you new to ferrets to bookmark it for later reference.
 
Please keep Ben in your thoughts and prayers.
 
Best to all and give extra hugs to all your fuzzies.  Special wishes for
you who are dealing with sick ones.
 
Jackie
[Posted in FML issue 2941]