>Date:    Sun, 4 May 2003 21:29:35 -0400
>From:    April Armstrong Campbell <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: MA ferret needs good home
>
>Hi, again.  My friend Bandit, previously perfectly healthy, seems to have
>contracted a possible case of ECE, though we are still waiting for some
>labwork to come back, but still needs a home.  I have been fostering him
>for a week and a half, but I cannot keep him here much longer, and am
>really hoping someone can help us out.  We thought we had found a forever
>home for Bandit, but alas, that is not to be...." "...He is adrenal, and
>I can help with that in terms of surgery costs, etc. but..."
 
Thought you'd all like to know that after months of foster care at my
house and two possible homes not working out, I finally badgered my
husband into letting me keep this little "old" man (he's five) as his
forever mommy... ;)  I couldn't stand the idea of him moving on to his
fourth home at age five, especially after he got "shelter shock" (as
above-green slimies... turned out not to be ECE, just stress and
depression causing yucky poops and anorexia, lack of appetite, etc.),
and after he finally started to learn how to be a ferret, learning to
snuggle and play with my ferrets after his month-long quarantine.  He'd
never been around other ferrets since kithood, and he was really
thriving.  Even the hubby got excited to see him running through the
tubes and waiting inside the ferret room door to greet him the first
time.  I told my hubby not to even bother getting me anything else for
our anniversary in July ;)
 
Anyhow, we tried to remove his right adrenal tumor, but it is the biggest
one my vets have ever seen (and we do a lot of ferts), and totally
wrapped around the vena cava and under it.  Rather than risk killing _MY_
ferret that day, my vets consulted with another surgeon whom they feel
is even better (that's saying a lot!) and who has better magnification
devices, and we've decided to try and shrink it a bit with some Lupron
therapy, reultrasound it in a month (he's already had two shots) to see
if that's happened, and try again at the other clinic in a month or two.
 
Meantime, the Lupron is working great-he no longer looks like his
brain is showing (wrinkly, bald patch on his head is gone), his fur is
regrowing in places you couldn't even tell it was thin or missing before,
and he went from a nonhooded, lbrown sable to a jet black, hooded sable
boy.  I wouldn't recognize him if he hadn't been here all along!  (Well,
I think I'd know that freckly nose and stout jaw anywhere by now,
but....) He's still trying to use my big albino male as a binky every
night, chewing on the back of his neck, which my albino is tolerating
(unbelievably), but we're making progress; his prostate has shrunk and
he doesn't pee every five minutes any more. :)
 
Thought you'd like to know-ferret math strikes again!  Boy, do I have a
great and TOLERANT hubby!  :) (Don't get me wrong-the first two ferrets
were HIS idea, but he never envisioned SIX!!!)
 
Dooks,
 
April AC and the newly minted Auburn Six-Pack (formerly the Auburn =
Five!)
[Posted in FML issue 4261]