Hi!, it took me awhile to write this because I miss Cherokee so much.  She
was only 3 1/2.  And she was the fattest ferret you ever saw (4lbs).  So
chubby, she would roll over when she tried to wash herself.  She was a big
goof!.  Even tho she made Us laugh, she was not a nice ferret.  She was a
nose, hand and toe biter!  And when she bit you she meant it!  But I loved
her anyway.  She was one of those Canadian ferrets.  Not a good attitude.
Well, she began to have those darn "seedy" stools.  No blood, diarreah.
Nothing else.  Just undigested stools.  I had her and her "samples" to 3
Vets..  She was given every drug you could imagine.  From amoxy to carafate
to the ulcer combo.  She began to lose weight, I was getting very worried.
One Vet said seedy stools are normal!!.  But she still ate with gusto, and
still tried to bite my nose!
 
[posted in 2 parts.. combined here.  BIG]
Well, thank God Dr. Susan Orosz, came to Toledo from the University of
Tennessee.  She did a barium X-ray on her, and also mentioned that her
Lymph nodes were very swollen.  Things the other Vets never suggested.
She wanted to do exploratory the next day.  The barium just wasnt passing
all the way thru.  I thought maybe my big "Garbonzo Bean" just ate
something bad, or had a hairball?  I dropped her off the next day.  Never
to see her alive again.  She had cancer of the piloric valve.  Stomach
cancer, and it was bad...Plus the start of insulinoma.  The Vet said
recovery would be long and hard.  If at all.  I never got to say "Goodbye".
So please, You know your ferrets better than some Vets do.  Dont let things
go to long.  Its so important to find a good, knowledgeable, ferret Vet.
 
Thanks for listening, Joan Vick
and the 8 Toledo Terrors
 
  (ferrets since 1977)
[Posted in FML issue 2957]