Hello to all ferrets and their humans :)
 
Over the last few days we have had a couple of very sad deaths in our
little community and I want to tell the story of just one...
 
Billie was a beautiful albino jill who left for the Bridge this morning.
See Billie's humans got her from someone who never told them about the
importance of bringing her safely out of season, and sadly she was left
in-season for somewhere between 4 and 6 months!  She was in lots of pain-
she went off her food, her vulva was about the size of a 10 cent piece,
and she spent her time backing into corners and crying.  Her humans
rushed her to the vets, and he performed a complete hysterectomy (he had
no other option in the short time they had) and gave her an antibiotic
shot for the uterine infection she also had.
 
Her humans spent all their time with her, feeding her from an eyedropper
and for a while she was looking up but this morning when her human Dad
awoke, she looked at him and departed for the Bridge.  Her humans are
devastated, so I'd like to ask Sandee or Muldoone or SaraFerret to help
her find her way around the Bridge and tell her we're all so very sorry
we couldn't help her sooner.
 
I implore you all- please, please, please make sure your precious girls
are bought out of season properly or get them sterilised to ensure they
don't suffer a sad needless death- as another friend discovered many
years ago when her first ferret died of aplastic anaemia (because like so
many others, she never knew how dangerous leaving a jill in-season could
be, no-one ever told her and she never knew that there were people out
there who could help)
 
I get so heartbroken when I see or hear of ferrets dying of something
that all ferret owners and potential ferret owners should be told about
when they get their first ferret.  Over the years we've seen this happen
too many times- and usually its because people don't have all the
information and/ or don't know who to turn to and every time it saddens
our community.
 
With love and big dooks,
Ursh and Fuzzes.
[Posted in FML issue 4750]