Greetings all.  I'm a regular reader of the FML but very seldom do I
post.  I'm posting to the list today because one of my 2 ferrets, Terri,
desperately needs some kind thoughts and prayers.  This is her story:
 
I was in my last year of law school at the University of Florida.  I had
purchased my first ferret, Streudel, several months before from a pet store
and I had decided that he needed a companion.  After learning a *lot* more
about ferrets from this list and other internet resources, I decided that I
would not buy another ferret from a pet store because there were literally
hundreds of other ferrets in shelters that needed homes.
 
But where could I find one near me?  The local humane society referred
me to West End Animal Hospital and the shelter there, run by Dr. Debbie
Kemmerer, who sometimes reads and posts to the FML.  So I visited to see if
she had any ferrets that needed a home.  On my first visit, there were a
few that had just come in and needed to be quarantined, and then there were
a few others that needed medical treatment, such as surgery.  Among the
second group was a tiny, mostly hairless ferret the hospital staff had
named Terri.
 
Terri had been left on Dr. K's doorstep, with only the hair above her neck
and below her ankles to keep her warm.  The rest of her was covered only in
soft, smooth, pink skin.  The staff estimated she was between five and six
years old.  Most of you have already guessed that she was diagnosed with
adrenal disease.  Terri was scheduled for surgery shortly to remove her
tumors.
 
I came back a week or two later and decided that Terri, the bald, nervous,
1-pound little girl, needed a home the most, so Dr. K told me about her
fostering program.  All the sick homeless ferrets in her clinic could go
home with a family willing to take care of them and any major medical
treatment would be taken care of by Dr. K, as technically, they were still
her ferrets.  I decided to try it.  I still don't know why.  Streudel was
less than a year old, large, robust and energetic.  How in the world could
little Terri be a good companion?
 
Well it worked out.  It wasn't very long before they were playing together
(although Streudel had much more energy than Terri and Terri would get very
annoyed with him, giving him little hisses when she felt his advances were
too much) and sleeping together (yes, it was entirely platonic).  And lo
and behold, the stubble grew back.  Terri grew more and more playful and
seemed to be less tense than she was when I first saw her.  At long last,
she was comfortable.
 
Then last night, I went into the bedroom that they have the run of and
noticed her lying down with her head underneath a t-shirt.  Not that
unusual, except she wasn't moving at all.  I picked her up and her body
felt cool.  And she was shaking every few seconds.  Her back legs had
stopped working.  I looked around and spotted a couple of spots on the
carpet where she had evidently been unable to hold her bladder and her
bowels, probably because she couldn't make it to her favorite corner.
This was my worst nightmare; it was 11:00 p.m.  and I had no idea what to
do.  Hadn't I read something somewhere about the symptoms of insulinoma?
Wasn't I supposed to rub honey or corn syrup on her gums to bring her out
of shock?  So, I took her to the kitchen and put some honey on my finger
and tried to get her to lick it from her lips.  And she did, but not very
energetically.  I brought her back to the bedroom, put her in the sleep
sack in the cage to keep her warm and called the emergency vet (on the
other side of Orlando, where I live).  I gave her some Nutrical, which
was encouraging because she lapped it up enthusiastically.
 
I got her to the vet about half an hour later and my fears heightened
immediately: her temperature was so low that it wouldn't register on the
thermometer; that meant below 90 degrees F.  Her blood glucose level was
down to 50 (50 what I don't know, but that's somewhat low I was told) and
she was dehydrated (the reason behind her hypothermia).  I left her there,
with an IV in her arm and laying on a heating pad, went home and tried to
get a couple hours of sleep.
 
I woke up at 5, showered and dressed for work.  I intended to take her to a
local vet, but when I got to the emergency clinic, I changed my mind.  She
needed to see Dr. Kemmerer.  Who else knows so much about her condition?
So I hit the road and headed to Gainesville.  As I write this, she's stable
but still doesn't have the function of her hind legs.  Tomorrow, she will
be going into surgery to either confirm or abolish our worst fears:
insulinoma.
 
Compounding my fears is a trip I'm making to Washington, D.C.  tomorrow.  I
will be unable to see Terri until Saturday, January 6, when I've scheduled
a return trip to Gainesville.  I know that I've left her in good hands and
that is ultimately why I elected to drive 2 hours and be *very* late to
work rather than leave her with a local vet (not that the local vets are
bad, it's just that Dr. K is passionate and extremely knowledgeable about
ferrets).
 
I guess what I'm trying to say is this: please pray for Terri.  She is an
important part of my family and I don't want to lose her.  Also, I would
appreciate any advice some of you might give about living with a
hypoglycemic ferret (I assume that, even if any tumors are removed, she
will still require some special care).
 
Thanks for reading this,
Erik, Streudel and Terri
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[Posted in FML issue 3281]