Hi ya'll, It's the ferretguy again.  While I've been in and out of the
hospital with all of my health issues, there has been a sweet little guy
that came to the shelter about 3 weeks ago with paralysis of the hind legs.
 
A few years ago, we had another ferret come in to Especially Ferrets with
hindquarter paralysis and after working with him for 7 weeks, every four
hours around the clock, he finally took his first step and we all nearly
cried as we had put so much time in him and to see it pay off was such a
joyous occasion.  He was still bling and eventually learned how to get
around the shelter without a problem and lived with us for 4 more years,
in comfort, never caged and making friends with thousands of our clients
over the years.  Sadly, he went to the Rainbow Bridge in Feb. of this year
at the age of seven.  I will be happy to see him again someday.
 
Anyway, back to our new challenge.  His name is Kodo, and his owners heard
that we are a NO-KILL shelter, and couldn't even afford to take him to a
vet for a check-up.  They surrendered him and we immediately got him in to
see DR. Steve Feldman in Aurora, Co..  He is really one of our nicest and
qualified to work on ferrets vet.  Poor Kodo not only had lost the use of
his legs, but had no control over his bowels and bladder.  We have been
manually evacuating his bladder for him every three hours around the clock
along with physical therapy after his bladder is evacuated.  He is very
active in the sick room after we do his p.  t.  and gets around almost as
good as the four legged ones.  He has taken the habit of waiting until we
hold him over the sink in our sick room to help relieve his bladder, and
then he lets his bowels go!  His tail wiggles constantly and yesterday,
guess what!  His feet actually moved while we tickled them!!!  We are so
excited!  We feel it's only a matter of time before we get this sweet
little guy back on four legs.  He also Peed on Jan, one of the volunteers
that has been working with him during the day, without any assistance....
and he waited until he was over the sink.  I am going to post his story on
our website at www.especiallyferrets.org and update it very frequently.  If
you would like to follow his progress, check out the story on the website.
Please keep little Kodo on your prayer list and give two hugs to all your
fuzzkids, one for you and one from the Ferretguy
[Posted in FML issue 3103]