Jasmine Sebok  June 1995 - June 18, 1999
 
Jasmine, our four-year-old dark-eyed white ferret, died last night of
post-operative complications.  She stopped breathing shortly after midnight
on June 18th.
 
Jasmine joined our family as a four-month-old kit.  We got her to be a
friend for Bridgett, a ferret we had rescued six months earlier.  Our other
ferrets, Ben, Jerry, and Buttercup, had refused to accept Bridgett for many
months and were very mean to her.  We thought Bridgett needed a friend,
and Jasmine was at a local pet shop, getting bigger and still not chosen.
Jasmine helped our ferrets become integrated as one family.  Since she was
still a kit, she was accepted fairly quickly, and her presence somehow
helped the others to accept Bridgett.
 
Jasmine was full of energy and loved to crawl under the cage carpet,
knocking over all the food bowls in the process.  We called this a "Jasmine
attack." She could dig in the litter box until it was nearly empty.  She
loved to climb on furniture, and she scaled a bookcase to reach the top of
a file cabinet where ferret supplies were kept.  Jasmine was the first to
discover how to pry open the connecting tube between the two cages and let
everyone escape.  Once we came home and found apples and potting soil all
over the kitchen floor, and five ferrets merrily exploring the house.
 
Jasmine loved squeaky toys.  When we visited Bill's mom in Ohio, Jasmine
loved to take dog toys and hide them under the couch.
 
Jasmine was a very photogenic ferret.  We have many wonderful pictures of
her, including some that capture her exuberant dance of joy.  You can see
them in her page (still under construction) at URL
http://www.astro.umd.edu/ferrets/jasmine/ .
 
Jasmine was a beautiful silvery ferret as a kit.  As she got older, she
lost most of the darker hairs and became mostly white.  People who saw all
of our ferrets together often commented on how pretty Jasmine was.
 
Jasmine had a very easy-going and sweet disposition.  She got along with
everyone and seemed oblivious to the dominance struggles of some of the
others.
 
A couple of years ago, Jasmine's coat started to show signs of adrenal
disease.  She didn't act sick at all, and a thick coat returned, so we
didn't have surgery.  In retrospect, we probably should have.  During the
past few months, our focus on Buttercup's illness probably kept us from
realizing that Jasmine was becoming very ill.  We took her to Dr. Weiss
about a month ago, and he said she had a very large spleen and probably an
adrenal tumor.  Although he said her coat was thin, it looked pretty normal
to us.  She was overeating and getting fat; we were used to sick ferrets
refusing to eat.  The results of a chem screen were normal.  When a round
of antibiotics didn't have any effect on her enlarged spleen, we began to
think seriously about surgery.  She was starting to act very sick, not
playing any more and acting uncomfortable, so we decided to schedule
surgery for Tuesday, June 15.
 
We expected the surgery to be a routine spleen and adrenal tumor removal.
Much to our surprise, Dr. Weiss found a huge right adrenal tumor that was
blocking blood flow through the vena cava, attached to the liver, and ready
to rupture.  He performed a vena cava ligation; the spleen returned to
normal size after the removal of the adrenal tumor, so he left it in.  Dr.
Weiss took Jasmine home with him for the first night, and everything seemed
to be going well.
 
Ironically, there was only one other time a ferret of ours faced a
difficult surgical recovery; that time Jasmine was the young, healthy
blood donor who saved Ben's life.
 
We took Jasmine home on Wednesday, and she had a rough night.  She was in
a lot of pain and was breathing hard and even panting.  We took her in to
Dr. Weiss the next morning, and he examined her and found her vital signs
normal.  He gave her fluids and an injection of Torbutrol, and she seemed
better after this.  She slept comfortably for a long time, and we thought
she was improving.  At night she became restless again and would not take
Nutrical.  She seemed to at first not notice the ferretone held under her
nose.  It looked like she would have another rough night.  Her tail was
puffed, in retrospect a bad sign.  We brought the hospital cage upstairs
again so she could sleep right next to our bed.  Soon after we turned out
the lights, we heard several high-pitched cries.  We turned on the lights
and sat next to her.  She cried two or three more times and stopped
breathing.
 
Jasmine will be buried next to our dog Lupi at a beautiful pet cemetery in
a rural area of Maryland.  Her picture will be on her little tombstone so
everyone who sees it will know she was a ferret, a ferret who was loved.
 
Goodbye, Jazzy.  We'll never forget you.
 
Four years was much too short.
 
Clare and Bill Sebok
[Posted in FML issue 2715]