All those wonderful people who emailed me to stop and say hello on my way
out to California--PLEASE be patient!  I am not ignoring you and I will
email you in the next couple of days.  That same to those generous people
with money to waste on science.  I just got extremely busy with sick
ferrets.
 
As most of you know, Lady Noir recently passed away.  What I didn't say
was that I have three other sick ferrets that have been taking up a lot
of time.  I haven't had so many sick ferrets at one time, ever!  It is
like they all waited to get ill at a single time.  Maybe it's a new type
of stress test for my heart?  Between the ferrets, work, and doing some
serious writing, I've been monitoring my email, but I haven't had time to
answer much of anything.
 
Mickey Moose has a nasty infection just in front of his ear; I think it
was hurt playing or fussing with one of the other boys, but however it
was done, the side of his head is swollen.  My vet opened the wound and
washed out some really nasty stuff, so now all I have to do is keep it
clean and give him antibiotics three times a day.  So, I carefully clean
things up, put him on the floor, and what does he do?  Run to latrine and
rub his face in the litter!  I'm chasing him all over the room trying to
keep his face out of dirty litter boxes and he thinks its a game.
 
Carbone developed a cough last Friday, and x-rays suggested a lung
problem that could be pneumonia, a fungal infection, or lymphoma.  He is
taking antibiotics and will have another x-ray next Monday.  If nothing
has changed, then it is time to suck some cells into a syringe and look
at the histology.  He has never been sick in his life, so this caught me
off guard.  When I was at the vet, I was having a conversation with a
young man who had his ferret in for shots, and he was poking a bit of fun
at me for seeing the vet on an emergency basis for nothing more than a
cough.  At the time, I did feel a bit foolish, but there was something
about the cough that worried me.  It turns out I was right to be
cautious.
 
Tui REALLY has me worried.  He started losing weight about a month
ago, and I am so paranoid about ADV that I immediately had the test
re-re-re-re-performed, and it came back negative.  I took him in, had
him x-rayed, and couldn't see anything bad, so we just started to monitor
the situation and document changes.  Tui's condition never got better,
and his belly started to enlarge, so back he went to the vet.  That x-ray
showed a HUGE mass in his belly!  Within 3 weeks, Tui went from showing
nothing on x-ray to a huge mass.  All it took was 3 weeks!  So today he
went in for exploratory surgery.  The vet found a huge fluid-filled
cyst/tumor on Tui's liver!  Tui's kidneys were pale, and a small tumor
was adjacent to the left kidney and extended into the adrenal gland.
All his other organs, including his pancreas and spleen, looked fine,
and NO nasty little yellow spots could be found anywhere (I am REALLY
paranoid!).  So Tui lost a quarter of his liver and his left adrenal, but
bleeding was minimal.  I don't know what was going on with the liver, but
I have some hope: Tui HATES being scruffed!  He will twist around and
bite the crap out of the dummy who forget that he hates to be scruffed.
I know this, my vets know this, and everyone at the vet hospital knows
this, but a vet student didn't and as Tui came woke up grumpy after
surgery, the student scruffed him and was taught a valuable lesson to
read the warning on the cage.  I know it sounds mean, but when I heard
that Tui bit someone when coming out of surgery, I couldn't help but
laugh out loud.  I even said something like "'Way to go, Tui!" I've been
hanging out at the vet's ICU, just stroking his head.  Poor little guy.
 
The reason I wrote this post when I have to beg time to go to the
bathroom is to remind people to pay close attention to their ferrets, and
when they notice something that is not normal, don't wait, IN-VETS-IGATE!
Take them to the vet and find out what is wrong.  And if some person
pokes fun at you for taking your ferret to the vet for a cough, educate
them.
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4441]