Hi all!
 
First of all, I want to say to Lynn MacIntosh, I am so sorry to hear about
Squeak!  He sounds like a ferret I would have loved to have seen!  Shame on
the breeder and their lack of responsibility!  Ferrets like Squeak are very
special, and they touch the hearts of all the people that they come in
contact with.  I am positive that you were the best home & mom to take care
of him.
 
To Echo's mom: Please don't blame yourself.  I think everyone on the FML
could have been in your place!  I know that I have - all it takes is a
second, and then the guilt - please, please, we know that you did not do
this on purpose and forgive yourself.  It was an accident, and you cannot
blame yourself.
 
To Mrs. Duck: Hooray!  You have so eloquently spoken my exact feelings about
MF!  No one could have expressed them more clearly and concisely than that,
and I for one, give you a big hug for that!!!!
 
about Kyle: some of you know the story of Kyle, he is an 3 yo albino male,
turned into us with his sister, last June.  His owner turned the ferrets
over to a friend, who did not get permission from her mom to take care of
these ferrets, and said get them out of my house!  The caretaker called me &
asked if I would watch the ferrets for 4-6 weeks until the owner got back
from boot camp.  I said yes & went to pick them up.  What I found were two
scrawny (eating Frisky cat food) ferrets, one sable, one albino, in a nasty
cage with no litterbox and no hammock.  She left a bag of medicine, saying
they both had ear mites (it was Hartz OTC ear mite medicine).  The albino's
ears were caked with black stuff and he stunk horribly, as well as having
what looked to be a large mast cell tumor on his side.  The sable female was
blind and also stunk.  Both were covered in fleas.
 
Rushing home to bathe them, I discoved the stuff around the albinos ear was
dried blood!  I took him to the vet and he had tumors in both of his ears!
We had them debulked and hoped that this would cure his problem.  We sent
both masses to Dr. Williams.  Unfortunately it came back that the sebaceous
tumors must have the roots removed to cure his problem.  The mass on his
side turned out to be fibrous, and has not come back.  He continued to have
problems with his ears, and we tried many different treatments for curing
without surgery.  No luck, in fact he then developed a bacterial infection
in his ear (the Drs think it was always there, it just had resurfaced) and
caused his lymph nodes to become swollen.  They are now only the size of an
almond, and only the nodes on his neck are affected.  He has been on
Clavamox since November in the hopes of boosting his immune system and
curing the infection, since the Drs dont want to do surgery with the
infection still going on.
 
Well, his surgery is scheduled for Monday the 13th.  This happy little boy
who walks like he has snowshoes on (wire cage bottom caused him to walk with
his toes completely stretched out) he is so good and so little trouble, I am
just worried because I have had such bad luck with surgeries.  The last
three died as a result, and I do not want this to happen to Kyle.  He can
only be described as happy-go-lucky, and I just dont want him to suffer with
his ears his entire life.  His coat is rather scruffy & scraggly, but there
is a handsome albino in there somewhere, I just know it!  One of my worries
with this surgery is that the Doc will be removing the entire ear flap that
surrounds the ear canal.  There is a major nerve that runs very near this,
and if it is cut, he will look like a stroke victim - one side of his face
will droop down.  But I can not allow his discomfort to go on!  I have to
clean his ears daily, and each time I do, they bleed.  He hates it and the
medicines too, but he takes both like a gentleman!
 
Keep your fingers crossed for this little boy, and hope that the surgery is
a complete success!  I doubt poor little Kyle will ever leave the rescue,
but this depends on what happens and whether or not the tumors come back.
It also depends on his coat - its so sparse, he may also have adrenals, and
I will be testing for that as well.
 
Lisa
 
[P.S.]
OOOPS!  I forgot to thank all of the great ferret vets that have helped in
Kyle's diagnosis and treatment!  They are: Dr. Brenda Ernest;Dr Bruce
Williams;Dr. Laura L'Heureux; Dr. Peter Fisher & last but not least, Dr.
Herbert Hulls.  I can highly recommend any of these vets as "ferret people"
and just wanted to publicly acknowledge the hard work & dedication to our
ferrets in treating Kyle.  They have all been great!
 
Thanks a lot, Doctors!
 
Lisa
[Posted in FML issue 1812]