Hi,
 
Thanks to all of you who have helped with Percy's case.  The results of the
exploratory surgery with adrenal tumors suspected were a surprize, as were
the path results.
 
Percy pulled through his exploratory like the intubation-training trooper he
is (he was used for two years in a medical school to train students to
intubate babies).  The night after the morning of surgery we brought him
home; and about one in the morning nurse Lynn got violently ill; felt like
food poisoning.  I was standing over poor Percy's cage trying to change his
poop paper, when I grew dizzy, nauseous, etc.  Being violently ill and
caring for a temp-dropping ferret post-surgery is another kind of
experience.
 
But we pulled through.  Percy hit a couple low lows, 95 degree, 96 degree
temperatures.  We rushed him back to the doc the day after surgery.  He
didn't look that low, though, and the doc said sometimes ferrets get low
temps after sleeping deeply.  He was also in a body wrap and bleeding from
his incision when we brought him home (I begged the doc to let me take him
home; he would have kept him, but I wanted him to be somewhere where someone
was, and nobody stays overnight at the vets - boy was I in a regretful panic
those first couple minutes at home).  The incision was oozy when he moved
and my job was to keep him still - a trick for an unhappy ferret with a
bandage around his middle.  By morning we took off the bandage, though
during the wrapping I had to rush to be nauseous, though not because of the
blood.  Wow, what a night.  I liken nauseau from both to a body's natural
hurricane and earthquake cycle of cleansing, and have even lost weight,
though the hard way.
 
The next two days we recuperated together, me on Campbell's mushroom soup
and he on prednisone and bimoxicillin.  Wednesday, the day after surgery,
Janos and I force fed him chicken soup to the heartbreaking crunching of
grinding teeth, and some crying.  Feed him more, I cried.  No less, cried
Janos.  And so it went, with or without a call in to the vet to settle the
disagreement.  He got sub-q fluids too.  Poor Percy.  He was on a deeply
buried heating pad and draped his tummy across it like a sore snake.  He had
big purple bruises (not uncommen after surgery) along the incision, from
penis to rib bone.  Yesterday Janos came in the bedroom with a bowl of
chicken soup for Percy (nothing for me) and Percy greeted the morning (and
made our day) by lapping it eagerly.  Today, Friday, his temperature
stabalized nicely and he realized he was a ferret again.  He woke me up
early chomping hard food.  He's stationed on the blocked off third story of
a tri-story ferret cage pulled next to my bed.  I had to pull it over when
he started scratching madly at his bedding and wreaking general havoc in the
cage; then he calmed right down.  His bruises our healing nicely, and the
incision looks perfect.  Right now he's curled up with the boys on a rug in
the bathroom, just one of the guys soaking up the rays from the heater vent.
Not allowed in the condo yet, though!
 
I'm very happy with my the vet I chose for the surgery, Dr. Harris, in
Federal Way.  He's a good surgeon and vet, and, apart from discussing
ferrets, behavior included, intelligently, he waxes marvelously on
nutrition, animals and humans, even the Mayans mysterious habit of eating
clay with potatoes to kill a toxic bacteria in the skins!  He also gave me
his home phone for the night after surgery.  Four stars to him!
 
So Percy is well on the road to recovery.  Now, all he needs is a fur coat!
(see Medical Question Post)...
 
Thank you,
 
Lynn Mc, the hairless wonder Percy, and the doting Gang of Six wintery
fluff balls, who cover Percy with their fur:  Minnie, Claudette, Petey,
Tarzan, Wally, Gadzook, plus the cat and the man, what were their names?
Wellington and Janos.
 
And those remembered sweetly in spirit: Squeek Eagle, the baby ferret of all
ferrets, and Schroedee Boat, Percy's buddy from the lab
[Posted in FML issue 1755]