A light silver male ferret was turned in to the local Humane Society in
March.  He was almost dead from dehydration, extremely thin, and we
didn't quite know if he was going to make it.  A trip to the vet started
him on the road to recovery when they gave him sub-q fluids.  When I got
him after that I gave him four more injections of fluid and hand fed him
BC chicken gravy with a dropper, then he started lapping it up.  After a
few days he had plumped up to almost normal size again but upon palpating
his belly a large lump was found.  In spite of what was obviously a
hairball he could eat and poop pretty well although he was somewhat
subdued.  Finally last week he had surgery to remove the objectionable
material.  Just a lot of hair wadded in to a big furball.  This just
emphasizes the importance of giving hairball preventative.  This was
my first experience with a hairball surgery.  He has made a wonderful
recovery and now that he doesn't have that awful wad in his stomach he
is almost too frisky.  He's not the mellow boy he was while he was full
of hairball.  But he is a wonderful, well behaved boy, living up to the
name one of our members gave him- "Silverado."
 
Carol Owens,
Ferret Friends,
Tucson
[Posted in FML issue 4887]