Thanks to everyone who offered kind thoughts and words for myself and my
ferrets as two of them have undergone surgery in the past 10 days.  Just a
quick update:
 
Elie, my 7-year-old, underwent his second round of adrenal sugery last week.
He has had his stitches out and is recovering nicely.  6 months ago the vet
took out all of one adrenal and 70% of the other.  This second time he took
out 70% of the remaining adrenal, which is about all that he could take.
Hopefully this is the last round of surgery for Elie and it will buy him
some time.  He is a happy friendly guy and we want to keep him around for as
long as we can.
 
I was not keen on a second round of surgery but last time Elie developed a
kidney infection and had to go in for emergency surgery, and I did not want
to risk going through that again.
 
Scully, the 2-year-old female found in Severna Park 2 weeks ago, had her
spleen out early this week.  She is also doing well.  The biopsy report
showed an infarctive hematoma, which I understand amounts to a ruptured and
hemmorhaging blood vessel in the spleen.  The vet seemed surprised that the
spleen itself had not ruptured.  Was it a result of trauma?  I suppose we
will never know.  She's a lucky girl, and she's already sleeping with Elie
in his hammock and getting used to the other ferrets.
 
The vet who did both surgeries was Dr. Charles Weiss of Potomac Animal
Hospital, Potomac, MD.  I cannot recommend him highly enough--he truly is
a blessing.
 
Regarding budgeting for ferret emergencies, these last 10 days I have spent
approximately $700.00 on 2 ferrets, with 2 exams and 2 surgeries plus meds.
Of course you usually don't get hit with 2 surgeries at once, but you never
know.
 
Regards,
 
Gail Snyder Shochet
and Elie Wiesel, Pixel, Pepe, Kiaya, and Scully (and of course husband
Michael)
[Posted in FML issue 2338]