Dear Sandy;

Oh how I feel your pain! Even in a city of over 1 million people,
we have no emergency facilities for ferrets after hours. We have 3
emergency clinics, but on a good day they will tell you they know
nothing about ferrets, on a bad, and there are more bad than good,
they just flat lie and the ferret pays the price.

I may have a suggestion for you and others who suddenly, in the middle
of the night find their backs against the wall. Of course your best
bet is still to find a vet who will see your kids under emergency
circumstances, but in places like ours, there are none.

Many of the shelters who are actually hospices as opposed or in
addition to the traditional type of shelter have extensive medical
equipment, supplies and knowledge. Here we have everything from
narcotic analgesics to oxygen and back again. We have terminal ferrets,
most in various states of ill health and need to be prepared to help a
suddenly critical kid make it through long enough to get to the vet in
the morning. Some times that means only being able to relieve pain or
anxiety (we are not vets after all), some times that means actually
being able to save a life. I have spoken with other hospices who are
equipped are operate similarly.

How does that help you? Well here is the price of compassion......we
can not 'work' on any one not our own for liability reasons. So the
'price' is you must surrender your loved one to the shelter, and in
writing. Since we are also a rehab facility, if we are able to get the
ferret back on his/her feet and are convinced its surrendering home
will be able to deal with any remaining medical issues and can provide
a safe and loving home, then the surrendering family has the option of
adopting the little person back. The adoption fee is usually equivalent
to medical costs.

It is a fine line we walk, and I don't want to encourage other
shelters to do this without thinking it through, but it has worked
out for us many, many times. For you, if nothing else it, may have
at least provided a sense of you were able to do something, to help.

I encourage you to first try to find an after hours vet to help and if
that is not possible, check with your local shelter and see what they
do for an after hours vet. If there is no vet available, ask what they
do in such cases and if they have the medical knowledge, equipment,
and are willing to take in others in emergent circumstances.

I am so sorry about your baby boy Simon. I have learned many lessons
in life the hard way, and only some from the warnings of others. From
the FML I learned to removed my 'sack of sacks', a big plastic bag
containing other plastic bags. Even though I had never had a problem,
with that or dozens of other toys, some one else posted they had. After
careful consideration, caution vs. probability, many of those toys are
only down when the kids are supervised. My thanks and sympathy to those
who lost kids but had the strength and courage to share.

Again, I am so sorry.

Brenda, Momma to the FurpeopleWeyr
http://pages.prodigy.net/furpeopleweyr/index.html

[Posted in FML 5848]