The last of the three ferrets that my wife, Cynthia and I have owned over
the last eight years has died.  Mr. Bojangles (known as Bo) had been
suffering from pancreatic insolunomia and has been on Prednisone for the
last six months.  He had been responding very well to the treatment, but
suddenly last Friday, he took a major turn for the worse.  My wife went home
early to find him bloated, barely moving and with enlarged neck glands.  The
day before, Bo was quite chipper and playful.  We took him to our vet who
concluded that Bo's cancer had spread throughout his lymphatic system.  She
said we could keep him alive more-or-less for a little while with him on an
IV but even that wouldn't have kept him alive for more than a week or so.
 
I am so torn up over euthanasia.  Because Bo can't actually verbalize his
desires, I was really disturbed at choosing for him.  We decided to let our
vet euthanize him rather than prolong a, probably, painful existence.
 
I have seen the debate waged on the FML re: ferret surgery for this kind of
cancer, and I would rather not have to endure a bunch of Monday morning
quarterbacks telling me that I should have had Bo operated on.  I feel
pretty guilty as it is, but at the time we found out he had cancer, we made
a choice with the assistance of our vet to try treating the tumor with
medicine.  At the time, we were advised that surgery was rather iffy.
 
Well, I want to thank everyone on the List who has given me and my ferrets
news, humour, and advice over the life of the little weasels.  This is an
invaluable service.
 
On the more morbid side, I have quite a bit of Science Diet KD (low protein)
cat food (none of our ferrets would ever touch the various ferret 'chows' we
tried to give them).  I would like to give this food away to a shelter
(ferret or cat, I suppose).  Interested persons in the DC/NOVA area can
E-mail me at: [log in to unmask]
 
Which reminds me: I have switched jobs and will no longer have access to
this E-mail address.  If you would like to send condolences, and please
understand that I am not requesting that you do, please send them to my
commercial address: [log in to unmask]
 
Thanks for indulging me with this brief announcement, it has really helped
me grieve.
 
Colin Haller.
[Posted in FML issue 1609]