Weazer appears to have survived his second surgery and we hope to bring him
home tomorrow.  About 6 months ago we rushed him to the Vet's because he
appeared to be in pain and had a blocked urinary tract.  They immediately
operated on him and when the vet cut him open, his bladder burst.  They
found minute sediments in his bladder which caused the blockage but no one
expected him to survive.  Weazer fooled them all and was back to normal in a
couple of days.  On New Year's Eve we rushed him to the emergency room and
they finally placed a catheter in Weazer and he passed a very large (for a
ferret) stone.  X- rays showed many more stones and some of them were even
larger than the one he had passed.  Today's surgery removed all of the
stones.
 
This is where we need your help.  Weazer is only 4-1/2 years old so he would
normally have a lot more years to bounce around and hide squeak toys from
his two brothers.  We are concerned that unless we correct his problem, he
won't be able to survive many more surgeries or that he may become
incontinent from excessive scarring of the bladder tissue.  Is there a
practical diet (one that a ferret will actually tolerate) that will help to
check the growth of these bladder stones?  Weazer loves Science Diet Feline
Maintenance Lite, raisins, bananas, and Linatone.
 
Are there any other alternatives.  Our vet suggested that the only other
course would be to amputate the penis which would eliminate much of the
restriction and allow for larger objects to be passed.  Our vet has
performed this on cats (5) and a puppy with 100% success; but he said that
it was a very messy surgery and that because of the ferret's size and our
vet's age (and eyesight) he would be extremely apprehensive to try this.  If
worse comes to worst, does anyone know of a vet in the Michigan area that
could perform this operation?
 
My wife, Debbie and I are like all of you.  We love these little guys more
than sane people should.  We would do anything to help them but we just
don't know enough to make good decisions.  I have had ferrets as best
friends for over 15 years but because I live in Michigan, it is only
recently that I have been able to openly seek this kind of information
(Weazer and L.S.  are from St.  Paul).
 
Thanks in advance!
Dave & Deb
Weazer, L.S., & White Fang
[Posted in FML issue 1433]