This may seem off-topic to some, but it isn't to our family. Our
ferrets "own" a cat. The family has two cats, but the ferrets own one
of them. Reaganne gives ferret "taxi" rides. She has a tempting swishy
tail. Reaganne has never harmed a little ferrety head and has provided
hours of ferrety entertainment.

This morning, the ferrets's cat, a six-year-old female named Reaganne,
had a seizure. She fell off the spot where she was sleeping onto the
floor (2 ft.). Her body was rigid. I picked her up immediately. She was
drooling. I held her and rubbed her gently for a minute or so with that
sinking feeling in my heart. Reaganne had had a seizure as a kitten,
and it had been a very, very bad one. Reaganne's front paws began to
twitch, and then she started the signs of what we'd been told to look
for as an asthma attack by a vet when she was a kitten (Reaganne's
asthma has been controlled by cautious activity and has not needed
medication). I began gently probing her for any injuries. As soon as I
touched her abdomen, she growled, hissed, howled, and suddenly raced
around the room over and over again like a Tasmanian devil, none of
which are Reaganne-like behaviors.

I don't need to tell you how much an emergency vet cost. Her lungs
sounded bad = x-ray. Lumps in her abdomen = blood work. Add in the
office visit and the medication. The short version is that we found an
emergency vet open after our little northern Ohio blizzard 30 miles
away. Reaganne has slightly malformed lungs, which equals asthma and
medication to try. The lumps in her abdomen are fatty tumors. The
seizure was most likely caused by diabetes, but we'll know for certain
through specialized blood work sent off next week. It turns out that
cats's blood sugar can spike considerably with stress, and there is an
extra something in the blood (don't have the paper in front of me) that
can tell for sure. Reaganne's blood sugar was 264. We didn't spend a
dime of money raised for the ferrets on the cat (because we spent all
that at the last ferret vet visit in Dec.).

If it isn't tempting fate, please, in addition to praying for Reaganne,
please pray that nothing else happens around here that requires a
financial solution. We are passed empty. We are selling my husband's
fish aquarium and other personal belongings on CraigsList in the next
month. With everything, I just want to fall apart (see yesterday's
post).

I am thankful to all of you that wrote with kind words regarding these
last weeks. If I haven't responded to you personally yet, I will. It
has just been a very, very bad day.

With respect,

Lori of Ferrets at Heart
Huron, Ohio
[log in to unmask]
http://ferretsatheart.com/

 ...and Rhys, Ayla, Codo, Mandie, Winter, Holly, Charlie, and Templeton
(and the ferrets's cat, Reaganne)

[Posted in FML 6986]