Hello!
I haven't posted about my new ferret, because things have been hectic over
here.
 
Last week, Mary June brought me my adoptive ferret...it was supposed to
be a she, by the name of Princess Ferri <heh> and turned out to be a 3.5
pound boy.  He is a blast!  He chortles with every step he takes, can leap
INSANELY high in the air (so high that when he comes dooking at you, and
leaps, you can catch him in mid air!), and is so fat that he almost can't
fit down the ferret tubes we have (and DEFINITELY can't turn around).
 
He spent his life in a tiny, crappy little cage that looks like a rat cage,
and his "hammock" was a deathtrap of holey old sweatpants tied to the top
of the cage.  First thing I did to the cage was lowered the shelves so he
could actually fit, and took down the sweats and put up a hammock (and cut
up the old one so he couldnt get stuck, and gave it to him as bedding).
 
As soon as introductions are over, he will be moving into a much nicer
cage, with my lonely girl, Azrael.  I have a feeling he will lose some of
that weight, because he and Azrael have (mostly) hit it off, and chase each
other constantly.
 
I was at the hardware store, and picked up a box of dryer hose which I
thought was 20 feet.  Turns out we have 50 feet of dryer hose strung out
all over the whole room, with slits cut in it (originally for airholes,
but the littler ferts can cram themselves in and out) and they LOVE it!
One will dive in the end, and another will hear it and charge over to leap
in after the first, and a grand chase will ensue.  I always break it up if
it seems too intense for the boy (we're calling him The Mighty Quinn right
now, but I expect he's gonna have about a dozen names.  My sister loved
"Princess Ferri") but otherwise we just let them have at it.
 
On the bad news part: when Mary was here, she noticed the listlessness of
one of my older girls, Sybill, which prompted me to get her to the vet.
(The boy went to the vet too, for a check up and shots).  Sybill has been
diagnosed with insulinoma.  She is on 1 mg prednisone twice a day right
now, and weighs about a pound--she did weigh 1.76 pounds, so she has lost a
lot of weight.  (WHY did I not notice this???!  I hold them every day!  I
thought she just looked skinny because she blew her winter coat--they all
did)
 
She was very lethergic for the first few days on the meds, and I have been
feeding her every four hours.  Last night was the first night she has shown
any energy at all, and she proceeded to attempt to kill Quinn.  Very weird
seeing a 3.5 pound tub running as fast as he can away from a 1 pound demon.
They were so fast I couldnt catch them as they went under the bed, through
the laundry, over the cage, etc.  I managed to nab her as they passed me,
and calmed her down and put her away for a while--I was afraid that much
effort would mess up her levels.  Not to mention poor Quinn, panting and
flat ferreting on the carpet.  I have him plenty of love, too.  So now I am
reading everything I can about insulinoma, trying to decide our next steps.
 
Mary, thank you for bringing our new boy to us!  AND, for spotting Sybills
illness.  It was great to meet you!  Our home is open if you're ever in
this area again...
 
:-)
-cobalt
[Posted in FML issue 3377]