Hi All:
I am a volunteer at Gimmee Shelter Ferret Rescue in Massachusetts.  Jan,
the shelter Mom is both a nurse and has been trained as a veterinary
technician.  She thought she heard of a program , maybe through the
ASPCA, that would certify shelter operators to provide euthanasia.  To
be clear, this is NOT for healthy ferrets, we are a NO KILL shelter.
 
In the past 3 weeks we have lost 4 ferrets.  The shelter is no where near
a 24 hour vet, and the vet we use cannot always come to the office after
hours.  This question came up again two nights ago.  One of Jan's own
fuzzies, Tikki, began seizing.  She was 8 years old, and luckily we were
there.  We tried massaging her gums with a sugar solution, and Jan gave
her subcutaneous fluids.  She stopped convulsing, but stayed in the
seizure.  Her breath had a very strong urine smell and we assumed that
she was in kidney failure.  We held her, comforted her, and kept her
warm.  Several hours later, she passed away.  She did not appear to be in
pain.  However,another ferret, Winkin-Blinkin, had a severe seizure the
previous week and could not be brought out of it (seemed to be a major
neurologic episode, not an insulinoma reaction).  She appreared to Jan to
be suffering and after hours arrangements were made with the vet's office
to put her to sleep.  Luckily, they were available.  If the vet was not
available, it would have meant hours of needless suffering.  We are
looking into providing eutahnasia as a last resort to prevent this, and
only when a vet is not available.
 
Rudy, another of Jan's older ferrets, passed after being ill for a while,
and we also lost another foster ferret so it's been a heartbreaking last
couple of weeks.  On the positive side, we adopted out Chocolate and
Godiva (I posted about them a few weeks ago) and a pair of young albino
males.  Currently, we have a young single albino male up for adoption.
We also have another pair of fairly young males, Yogi and BooBoo.  They
are being treated for stomach ulcers presently and are coming along and
gaining weight (they were in a neglect situation).
 
How do other shelters handle these situations?  If anyone has any info or
suggestions, please email Jan or myself.  Jan can be contacted through
the website: www.gimmeeshelter.org.  Thank you in advance.
 
Leanne O'Neil
[Posted in FML issue 4414]