Thanksgiving day was nice.  Sort of a down day as Spook wasn't doing
well and it was the day before surgery but the company was pleasant and
warm. :-)
 
Friday was vet day and Silver surprised us all with a huge hairball in
the tummy, a left adrenal (which I knew), and insulinoma so he got triple
surgery (well sort of).  He is recovering well.
 
Dezzies mastectomy was a cyst so that went well.  Caused by over secretion
of estrogen from her right adrenal.  She's older and already had one
adrenal removed so I opted for not having a bi-lateral on her.  Other than
a little thinning of the fur and the adrenal pouches she looks and acts
good.  She is very glad to have that cyst removed.  I couldn't keep her
still after surgery and she kept getting in and out of the litter box on
the high side which rubbed against the stitches.  She ended up with a good
size bruise from all her activity.  She's doing well and very active
(energizer bunny on mega-caffeine).
 
SAD
Spook had a chest full of unclotting blood.  Larry pulled out 30 cc's of
blood on the left side and Spook still had difficulty breathing.  X-rays
showed very little lung capacity on left side and none on the other.
The fluid contained non-clotting blood and high counts of gram-positive
bacteria.  Larry said it isn't unusual to have blood in the cavity when
there is a massive infection as the blood vessels will ooze.  We started
Spook on injectable antibiotics for both gram-positive and gram-negative
(he'd been on oral amoxi) in hopes it would attack the infection quickly
and give us time to figure it out.... but it didn't.  Saturday morning
Spook had a pain shot to relax him so he could breath easier.  I had just
gone into the back bedroom and he managed to get off the bed and come down
the hallway to find me, gasping.  I picked him up quickly, two gasps and
he was gone.  Spook knew that he was dying and he wanted to be in my arms
when he left.  He was.  How much love can a little body hold?  More than
imaginable.  Spook proved his love 1000 times over.  He used every ounce
of his failing strength to reach me.  Spook left us at 8:10 a.m. Saturday
morning.
 
Spook looked so good, his weight was great (over 1400grams), his coat was
thick, long, and silky, and up till the spider bite several weeks ago,
he'd done so very well.  He'd been to Larry to check on the bite and I'd
had him on medication and warm packs.  A week ago Saturday the abscess
ruptured into his tear duct and from that point on he seemed to do better
as the abscess drained out the tear duct, till Wednesday when he seemed
more tired but was still breathing well at that point.  His appetite was
good the entire time till Friday.  It happened too quickly.
 
It was a mixed emotional holiday weekend.  I'm saddened by Spooks leaving,
but thankful that Dezzie and Silver are doing well.
 
Oh, the night before Spook left us, the house was in great turmoil.  By
morning I had 6 ferrets in the disciplinary cage.  Pumkin was one of them.
 
If only they could speak our language....
 
Warm hugs to all. tle
Troy Lynn Eckart
Ferret Family Services
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~sprite/ffs.html
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Haven/5481/
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[Posted in FML issue 3250]