In honor of the 3000th issue, I want to tell you of another special little
man in my life.
 
Back in January of this year, I fostered a 6.5 year old silver male named
Spaz.  He came to me with a nasty looking sore on his side that looked like
he had been burned.  From what I understand, his owner thought he had been
bitten by a dog... they never sought medical treatment.  Instead they chose
to surrender him.
 
After three days, the shelter director, called to tell me the bad news.  It
turns out that from the biopsy taken from his sore, Spaz had lymphosarcoma.
She told me she was so sorry to do this to me again... as Squeegie was a
foster who turned out to have cancer.  My heart sank, but I felt that I had
to arm myself with knowledge in order to deal with this new situation.  But
firstly, we had to deal with healing the sore from the outside first.  This
would at least give him some comfort.
 
Between the end of January and the beginning of March, we managed to get
rid of the lesions.  We did this by bandaging the area for the day with
various creams, and exposing it to the air at night.  We used a self stick
bandage that made him look like an athlete... all that was missing was his
head band.  We could tell that he was feeling better over time, as he began
leaping from the bed to the chair, and he was actively chasing and
harassing the other ferrets.  He even slept on his sore side.
 
My research did not turn up much.  It turns out that Spaz had a rare form
of skin lymphosarcoma and the only documentation on file talked of a ferret
on chemo therapy.  The shelter could not afford to take this course of
action.  So, shuffling all our money around in creative ways, we decided
that we would adopt Spaz and then look after his medical needs.
 
With the help of Dr. Bruce Williams, a course of action was finally
decided: Spaz needed surgery to remove the cancerous site entirely.  My
vet felt that he could not do the surgery properly, so he asked a cancer
specialist to see Spaz and assess what could be done.  Dr. David Szentimrey
was absolutely wonderful with Spaz.  After a small biopsy was taken to rule
out that Spaz's cancer could be elsewhere, and an x-ray taken, a date was
set for surgery.
 
I was allowed to view the surgery and am very thankful for the rare
opportunity.  He made it look simple and straight forward.  He allowed me
to take photos too.  The surgery went smoothly and Spaz came out of it just
fine.  Even at 6.5 years old... I knew he was strong enough to pull through
surgery..  and he did.  I am still awaiting the pathology report but am
extremely hopeful that this will be the end of this matter for Spaz...
In the likelihood that it did not, we are still hopeful that we at least
extended Spaz's life... even if only for a short time.
 
Spaz is very special... he is a kisser and a cuddler.  He loves to have his
face and neck scratched, as well as the backs of his legs.  He is so good
that I find it hard to believe that his owner could just give him up in the
blink of an eye, but then I think, maybe they knew that someone might just
be able to do for him what they could not...
 
If you would like to see Spaz, and the site before surgery click here.
http://EikonDesignsStudio.tripod.com/SpazBefore/SpazBefore/index.html
 
If you have a strong stomach and wish to see the surgery photos, click
here.  http://EikonDesignsStudio.tripod.com/SpazSurgery/index.html
 
Special thanks to Dr. Brian Jesmer, who continues to keep a watchful eye
on this special little guy...
 
Betty and Her Blur O'Fur Missing Squeegie
[Posted in FML issue 3000]