Ferret sling modifications:
as you all know, Meeteetse is waiting for her wheelchair from Doggone
Wheels http://www.doggon.com/questions.html
(which will hopefully get here tomorrow), and we've done sling walking with
her to take strain off her rear legs.  Have worked up a modification we
thought you'd like to know about which eases to discomfort to the human
backs while helping the ferrets.  Take a pair of panty hose.  Lay the feet
flat against each other ands sew together so that there are no bumps or
ridges to form the hammock which goes under the ferret's belly.  (I sewed
around in a circle.  Look at the top of your foot and imagine a circle
drawn on top of it; that's how I did it.).  Then roll the abdominal section
into a tight roll with the elastic on the inside of the roll, sew that to
make your handle.  Now, walk your handicapped ferret by placing the hammock
part under the abdomen and providing enough lift to remove strain from
the rear legs.  When making these if you have people of different sizes in
your household you can buy multiple size of pantyhose to give more or less
length to the legs, and can color code by purchasing each in a different
color.  That means that tall people can be careful of their backs, too.
Oh, and the cheap ones seem to work better than the more expensive and more
sheer ones!  Yes, we have experimented.
 
Plus, we found a new trick which improves Meeteetse's comfort very
rapidly -- a variation of abdominal massage in which we do hand over hand
under her belly going gently downward as she pulls forward with her front
legs.  It varies from the usual belly surface clockwise massage done for
when a large spleen impairs intestinal pathways, or the very gentle splenic
massage for large spleens that aren't coming out, yet.  Must have at least
a dozen different versions of massage for helping different things in
conjunction with vet care, now.  Do not know if this helps by making it
easier for her to deal with waste, or if it gently moves her body into a
position which is better for her back, or what, but it works for her.
[Posted in FML issue 3198]