Hi there.  I've subscribed to this mailing list for several months and only
get to read it sporadically, but have never posted until now.  I have kept
ferrets for 12 or 13 years, but just one at a time.  Fender is my second.
Now, it looks like I may to have to put him down.  :'-(
 
He's really a sweet little guy.  Always perky, so even tempered, never
bites, and so so cute, but I don't have to tell all of you that.  He's 6 1/2
and the other day I noticed he was having trouble breathing so I took him to
the emergency room where they put him in an oxygen tent and started doing
tests.  Turns out he has heart disease, which in and of itself, I
understand, is fairly treatable.  However, according to an ultrasound, he
also has several masses throughout his liver.  They haven't biopsied them
because he's still having trouble breathing outside the tent and they don't
want to add to the stress, but what else could they be but cancer?
 
The plan now is to try to get his breathing stable enough with heart
medication so that he can come home for a little while, but the overall
prognosis is not good.  I don't know if I have the heart (or stoamch) to put
him to sleep.  I know it's probably the best and certainly the most humane
thing to do, but...
 
I've been through so much with him.  He's had two splenectomies.  Once he
ruptured his spleen and they removed the damaged part.  Then a year later,
they thought he might have adrenal cancer or an insulinoma, but when they
went in, they didn't find anything except that his spleen was enlarged, so
they took the rest out.  That was two years ago and he's been fine until now.
 
I'm an actress and I've carted him all over the country with me on jobs;
often taking "The Scenic Route" into states such as that large, inhospitible
one out west.  Once, he actually got kidnapped.  He was in a production of
"A Christmas Carol" in Massachusetts (yes, back in the dark ages before the
revolution) and one of the kids from a school for wayward boys in NY state
who were helping out took Fender home with him in his back pack.
Fortunately, Fender got bored in the back pack after about a day and a half,
crawled out of the bag and was discovered by a slightly alarmed secretary
who turned him over the ASPCA in New York State.  Eventually, word got out
that I was missing a ferret and they tracked me down.  *phew*
 
So, needless to say, putting him to sleep is not a decision that I take
lightly, and I'm just not sure what the right thing to do is.
 
I'd appreciate any suggestions.  Hopefully, I have a few days to make a
decision.  He doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger.
 
Tracey
[Posted in FML issue 1648]