My test results came back negative.  My doctor shows no interest in figuring
it out and helping me.  Yesterday I spent at the hospital with the same
symptoms,and the few tests they ran came up with no answers either.  They do
not deal with hands.  I have to go to a hand specialist now.  A family
friend said my symptoms are identical to his ex-wifes and she was diagnosed
with carpo-tunnel syndrome and had surgery.  Mom believes this will have
been due to all the scruffing I do with the ferrets, mine plus all the
shelter kids is an awful lot of scruffing I must admit:-),daily for almost a
year now.  How can I go into the hospital with no one to care for the
shelter??  For short periods my hands are fairly good so I am trying to
write to you and to my e-mails.  I have over 100 e-mails yet unanswered so
it will take forever.  I am lucky if the hands feel useable for 2 hours
tops.  Even scooping poop causes pain in them.  This is awful & threatens my
ability to keep FANG alive.  I am very worried right now about everything
and feel my whole world as I have known it for the last year is crashing
down around me.
 
I had to cancel many ferrets final shots including Sweetheart & Kitzka.
Their new family is impatient but understands that I can't have shots given
when they are ill and that I must be sure they are well before they can take
them home.  I've been told that Sweetheart will keep her name but Kitzka is
now to be Kisses instead.  Very fitting as she always gives kisses if you
smack your lips at her.  I may ask if they want to adopt Mr. B also for a
great price break as the Mom fell for him too and I must adopt out every
ferret I can as quickly as possible once they are well.  I also had to
cancel Fancy's adult ferret surgeries as she calls them:-) In other words a
spay and descent.
 
This whole episode is more than scary for me for many reasons.  Being ill
myself I am barely able to do what is needed for the ferrets, partly because
there are so many of them here right now.  I have had to impose on Mom too
much and to the point I think she wishes I would not call anymore tho she
would never refuse to help.  Since I have absolutely no reliable help with
this shelter and Mom is not in the best health either I honestly wonder if I
am not endangering these little ones by trying to do this when I have no
help and my health is deteriorating more.  What if this had been the Big
Time with ECE or something more deadly than this appears to be so far??  It
hurts me to think about it.  Maybe I am doing more harm than good.
 
We gave Flagyl to all the kids last nite (9/13) and too many seemed to have
a bad reaction to it.  I have never seen so many hopelessly paranoid, hyper
as heck, grumpy and fighty kids in my life!  Was rather scary.  I have
decided to not use the Flagyl.  I feel this was not good for them to be this
way.  Have any of you had this experience with Flagyl??  I have chosen for
now to go with no antibiotics as they do not know what this is that has
become an epidemic in my shelter!  I've been told there is a new illness out
there that is the sister to ECE.  Just as contagious but does not seem to
attack them so viciously and so the survival rate is much better if they
receive proper support care.  I wonder if giving these antibiotics to them
is only killing the good bacteria in their systems and not doing a thing to
the nasty bacteria doing the damage.  If that is the case then it would make
them worse and lessen their chances for survival.  I am feeding rice water
with honey in it for the diarreah and to help in healing, Acidophilus powder
mixed in anything they like to add a lot more good bacteria to their
systems.  Force feedings to all that have lost weight and are not putting it
back on, or to the tiny ones that cannot afford to lose any at all.  Otee
has had the bad diarreah too and has refused to eat more than half of what
he was eating before this.  He was doing so good that it breaks my heart for
this of all things to happen now.  I am truly beginning to think he will
never eat the dry food on his own ever again and I have trouble envisioning
me being able to syringe feed him the rest of his life.
 
Even today the poodies are still real bad and cause me great worry.  The
first I saw today really put fear in me.  Sorry to be graphic but perhaps
you should know what to watch for.  This was not neon green but more of a
pea soup or olive green.  It was very loose and slimy like and had parts in
it that were long thin rubbery looking things.  I can only describe it as
looking as tho they had poodied out their intestines except they were pea
green.  Sorry again I know that was gross but I have no other good way to
describe it.  Then a part of it was more solid but a very deep dark forest
green.  It is now very clear the lettuce and cabbage some ate had nothing to
do with the green poodies at all:-)
 
We started the rice water and etc last nite and hope tomorrow maybe things
will look better.  So far all the kids seem to have some energy and are not
at death's door by any means.  I THANK the GREAT SPIRIT that we do not seem
to have what attacked Bob's crew.  My condolences to you Bob.  These
experiences are so damn hard!  So if any of you have any advice for what to
do here please e-mail me and put EPIDEMIC in the subject line so I know it
is important advice to help the kids.  I can only do a small amount of my
mail and cannot spend the time searching thru all for what is needed.
THANKS!  (the only kids that seem unaffected as far their poodies go right
now are Larry and the newest rescue, Idgie.  Oh yes and Squeeker is
unaffected so far too as he is isolated from all the other kids and tho he
has been in contact with me it has been pretty limited during all this.)
 
Please keep my babies in your thoughts until this awfulness passes and they
are all safe and well again.  I have to believe that will indeed be the
outcome as I cannot accept anything else.  TNT!
[Posted in FML issue 1693]