First.  may I say thank you for the info on the dangers of cough meds for
ferrets.  Whatever it was I used years ago I learned from several people
on the FML at the time, and it worked.  If there were warnings about
cough meds on the FML, I missed them.
 
Thankfully, KoKo stopped coughing the next day.  I had several swarms of
ants I had to kill in the morning.  This is not the only time over the
years I have had a ferret hacking and coughing for hours...scaring the
crud out of me..  and then found several hundred ants the next day.  I
have no idea if Koko was eating them, or if it is just a coincidence.
None were in the food or water bowls.  But she has stopped coughing.
 
Cost of Surgery
 
Miss Mini-Me apparently has dined on foam rubber and metal.  Heaven knows
she is my gaa-bigh guurl.
 
She climbs on my clothes to get onto shelves in the closet.  She runs up
the sides of the cages.  She leaps from one piece of furniture to another
like a flying squirrel.  She leaps on the cats face, and bites the poor
thing.  He screams and leaps away, and she does this leap, dance, twist
of such intensity.  She gets into every garbage container every day.  She
sneaks into the pantry when I have the door open for a second to get out
a hammer, or more ferret food, or a can of something.  I have locked her
in at least a dozen times over the years over night, or for the day.  It
is here she would have eaten foam rubber.
 
Anyway...the cost of surgery to remove the alleged foam rubber was going
to be a minimum of one thousand dollars.  That was Just for the surgery
itself that I was told was VERY dangerous, lengthy, and difficult.  Then
there would be the hospital stay if she survived, the IV the pain meds,
the cost of the room during surgery...
 
I just got another opinion today, and was told pretty much the opposite
by another vet.  So Mini-Me is scheduled for surgery this Thursday.  The
cost should be about half of what the other exotic vet quoted me.
 
The vet I saw today said the surgery should take 20 minutes, and that she
had done a large number of them, and that it was straight forward to do,
and that the stomach on Mini-Me was not distended, and that she had a
great chance of making it.  The apparent foam rubber is still there on
the x-ray we took today.
 
I have come to accept that my little one may well die because of wrong
advice by a Dr. It has already happened several times.  It is the closest
I have come to gambling.  I could let it eat me up.  But that will change
nothing.
 
All I can do is to make a decision that appears to be best based upon the
advice of an expert.  I was not going to put her through a surgery that
would probably kill her.  It is just a fluke I made the appointment with
this other vet weeks ago.  You realize Drs. are often booked weeks ahead
of time for Saturdays.
 
So who knows what the truth is here.  I sure don't.  But I am gambling
on the words of the second vet: that Mini-Me has a very good chance of
surviving the surgery, that it is not this incredibly complex dangerous,
long, risky surgery, and that she has a very good chance of mending and
living on to be my mean Miss Mini-Me...my gaa-bigg guurl.
 
Please say a quick prayer for this string bean silver mitt, trouble
making, attack everyone ferret...that she make it through surgery to
regain her strength and health.  I am syringe feeding her, and now have
her on still another antibiotic.
 
Many thanks
Lisette
[Posted in FML issue 4458]