Hello everyone,
 
I am mostly a lurker on the list.  Can't even remember the last time I
posted, but now I need some advice.
 
We have a little girl, Dena, who the vet guesstimated her age at what would
now be almost 3 years old.  She was adopted from a shelter after being
found out in the snow.  She was undernourished, scared and most likely
abused by her previous owner.  Dena doesn't know she's a ferret, she
actually thinks she's a cat.  For that reason, she doesn't house with our
other ferrets but she's quite happy to have free roam of the house.
 
She either spends her time sitting at my feet or on my lap sleeping and
makes trips to the litter box or food dish and then promptly returns to me.
 
Last year her tail went bald, right around this time, but the vet found
nothing wrong with her.  Earlier this year we found that her canine tooth
had broken and spent most of our emergency money in getting it removed.
Shortly after that I suffered a back injury and have been unable to work
since.  We are living off one income now and have been praying that nothing
goes wrong with any of our babies until I can get cleared for disability.
 
Well it seems our prayers were in vain, because again this year as winter
approached Dena's tail went mostly bald.  Reflecting upon the fact that
this happened last year but she remained in good health and eventually grew
a full and fluffy tail again we decided that it was just some strange thing
with her.  That was about 2 months ago.
 
In the past 2 weeks I have been on a roller coaster with her.  She will go
an entire day without eating and seem listless and then the next day be her
usual perky self.  Yesterday as daddy was getting ready for bed he went to
get Dena from inside his coat sleeve and we both panicked.  She was
completely limp without even the ability to hold her head up.  I had him
bring her to me and we noticed she was drooling quite a bit, as she sat on
my lap completely limp in my arms she wet herself.  I stayed up all night
with her trying to get her to take water, wiping the drool from her mouth
and just holding her and loving her.
 
Eventually hubby came home and took over Dena duty so I could get a few
hours of sleep.  He woke me up to show me the sight of Dena dooking and war
dancing and dashing off to her dish.  Mind you earlier that day when she
wanted down she could take only 2 or 3 steps before falling to the floor.
 
I know that everyone here is probably thinking, why aren't you taking her
to the vet.  The answer is simple.  We barely have enough money to pay our
rent and utilities.  We eat the most simple of meals so we can continue to
buy food for our carpet sharks.  We don't have a lot of money but we have a
lot of love.  Our vet insists on full payment up front for visits.  He is a
great vet and really knows his stuff so I wouldn't even think of changing.
There is an emergency vet here in town but he knows nothing about ferrets
(as friends of mine who are ferret parents have told us).
 
Does anyone have any ideas on what could be wrong with Dena?  Is there
anything we can do for her short of taking her to the vet (which we are
saving money up to do, but its going to take a while).  Please don't flame
me for not having money to take her to the vet.  I am already feeling
horrible enough about it.  I would give anything to be rid of these back
problems and be able to work so that I could get her seen!!
 
Please let me know if there is anything I can do for her.  I have hesitated
writing this letter for several days because one day she is fine and the
next she seems at deaths door.
 
Thanks in advance,
 
Carrie
[Posted in FML issue 2875]