Hi!  It's been a while since I contributed to FML, have been reading mostly.
 
First off, to all whose fuzzies have crossed over the bridge, my heart goes
out to you.  My family looks over, and they see the tears rolling down my
face and they know what's going on.
 
Second, to Sandra Iren, if you want to e-mail me, go ahead!  We're fairly
new at being owned by fuzzies ourselves.
 
Third, I have to let you know about Socks.
 
As a lot of you know, we got him early July.  Shortly thereafter, ferret
math struck!  Our daughter came back home from a month's visit with her
grandparents, fell in love with Socks, and then we made the mistake of going
to the feed/pet store here in town.  They had a silver mitt like Socks, and
a tiny, tiny chocolate sable kit.  Well, Sara looks at me with "bambi eyes",
and since I know the fellow who owns the place, he let us make payments on
the kit.  Turned out to be a little female.
 
She and Socks hit it off right away, and the three cats thought we'd brought
home some sort of radio controlled toy.  Larry named her "Kit", and she was
tiny enough to fit in the palm of our hands.
 
Shortly after her arrival, Socks became deathly sick, vomiting, diarrhea,
lethargic.  I rushed him to the vet that Saturday morning, and found he had
a temperature.  The vet gave him a shot of antibiotic, and told us to keep
the two separated.  We made him drink water, and he'd eat.  They both hated
being separated, and by the end of the weekend, he seemed over his problem
 
Ten days later, he was down again.  As the vet opens his office at 7a.m.,
Larry & I took Socks in before I went to work.  His infection was back, so
another shot of antibiotics, and clindymacin orally for 5 days, 2 x a day.
Again, he was better.
 
Last Friday I looked at him new he was sick again.  The vet said as long as
he kept eating and drinking, he'd be all right, wasn't anything else to do.
Oh, by the way, no masses, stool samples checked out ok.  His runs were
back, too.
 
Sunday morning he was vomiting.  I got on the phone and talked to the vet,
and he said force the fluids.  I told him then I was going to try him on
duck soup (bless all the FML's on that, and bless Don & Janice Boyle and
Phyllis Smith!).  Janice had sent me her recipe on duck soup, and also told
me to give Socks pepto-bismal & kaopectate. I called Phyllis Sunday morning
asking what to do as I couldn't get any Science diet or Hills.  She told me
Gerber's #2 chicken'gravy & sustecal.
 
Larry got home from work, we took off in the car and got all the stuff.  We
already had him on Iams kitten chow and I had pedialyte that he's been
drinking mixed with water.  After I fixed it, I took it in to him.  He'd
only lick it off my fingers, which was all right by me.  I'd sit all day
and let him do that.  Well, by late in the afternoon he was eating it on
his own.
 
Kit, in the meantime, was going nuts being separated from him, but she's
gotta live with it for a while.  By midnight Socks was up walking around,
eating duck soup on his own.  We'd given him a bit of pepto-bismal, too.  We
let Kit out to be with him, and she was overjoyed.  He even felt good enough
to pin her to the floor!
 
To date, his improving by the hour.  We still have them separated, but maybe
by the end of the week or early next week they can be together again.  They
get out to play together though.
 
Janice told me he's had ece, and Kit probably brought it to him.  He'd been
clawing his mouth, and she advised us that this was a sign of it, and to
continue small amounts of pepto to help coat his intestines.
 
This has been pretty long, but wanted to share this.  Again, bless Don &
Janice, Phyllis, and April.  They've been my rocks through this with advice,
encouragement, and being able to talk to them.  I'm really glad Bill has
this, so a thanks to you too!
 
Rebecca, Larry & Sara
Socks (okay, I'm getting better, when do I get back to the big cage)
Kit (MOM-----I want Socks back in here)
Chewie, Dribble, & Sarabi (what is that tiny streak running around here
attacking us?)
[Posted in FML issue 2412]