It is with a heavy heart that I write this.  After being involved with
ferret rescue for a number of years now, and doing education with "new
prospective adopters" and telling them that you need to watch your
ferrets very carefully because something can happen in an instant or an
accident can happen in the "blink of an eye", it happened here.
 
My personal ferrets had always been free roam ferrets up until a few
months ago.  Then my husband and I decided to make my office into a
ferret room.  We thought it would be better for the ferrets, they would
still have free roam of "their" room, but not the whole house.  We still
give them free roam of the rest of the house a few times a week.
Wednesday evening, the kids were out for free time in the main part of
the house.  They had been out for a few hours, bouncing around, playing,
having a grand old time.  It was time to collect everyone.  We started
collecting the kids.  Found my tiniest little girl Abby.  She was having
hind end weakness.  It appeared to be the beginnings of insulinoma.  I
called our wonderful vet at 10:30 that night.  Told her what I was seeing
for symptoms.  I told her it appeared to be insulinoma, but I wasn't
completely convinced that this is what it was.  Abby was having trouble
walking on one of her hind legs.  But it was as if she had fallen or hurt
her leg, I wasn't completely convinced that it was insulinoma.  We agreed
to take her in in the morning and have her BG checked.  My husband and I
took her in, the vet palpitated her and found a mass in her lower
abdomen.  The vet said it almost felt like her spleen was enlarged.  We
decided to leave Abby with the vet so they could run some blood work and
an x-ray.  Her BG came back at 125.  This is good I thought.  The vet
called early afternoon.  The x-ray showed a mass or some sort in her
lower abdomen but they couldn't tell if it was blockage or tumors or what
it was.  She recommended doing emergency exploratory surgery.  Said she
would call me back immediately after the surgery or inter-surgery if a
decision needed to be made.  I waited on pins and needles.  Finally got
in touch with the vet.  She had removed a golf ball size tumor from
Abby's intestine.  She said originally she didn't think Abby was going to
make it, but she seemed to be perking up more with the passage of time.
They would keep an eye on her through out the night and we could call in
the morning and see how she was doing.  If things continued to improve,
I could pick her up in the afternoon on Friday.
 
I was surprised to say the least that she had a tumor this large.  I
thought for sure when they went in to do the exploratory that they would
call and say it was a blockage of whatever.  But still kept saying even
if it is a blockage, I can't imagine what she would have gotten into.  My
house is ferret proofed even though they aren't out in the main part of
the house all the time.  I was somewhat relieved that it wasn't a
blockage.  After all this meant I wasn't a "bad" ferret mommy.  We went
to bed Thursday night, believing that I could pick my little Abby girl up
the following day.
 
No such luck.  The vet called at 7:00 AM Friday morning.  Abby did not
make it.  I am still in shock.  After preaching to "prospective" first
time ferret owners that you need to watch them constantly, things can
happen in an instant, blah, blah, blah.  It had basically happened to us.
My little girl was perfectly fine 4 days ago and now she is gone to the
bridge.  I didn't even get to say good bye to her.  She was here
literally one minute and gone the next.  This has been the hardest loss
for all of us.  Even harder than when we lost Jasmine back in March.
With Jasmine we knew she was living on borrowed time.  We were somewhat
prepared for the day when she would no longer be with us.  But with my
little Abby girl, she was such a bouncy, energetic, get into any kind of
trouble, knock things over, climb on absolutely everything, and steal any
type of electronic device I can get my teeth around little shit.  God I
miss her.  I just wish I had had more time to say good bye to her.
 
I'm sorry this is so long, I just had to get this out and you all are
such caring people.  I just hope the pain passes soon.  Not sure how much
longer I can continue to feel this way.
 
Rest in peace, my little spazzy girl.  Mommy and Daddy miss you and love
you.
 
Deb Honeysett
missing Nelson, Jasmine and now Abby at the bridge
A true friend is there through thick and thin,
no matter what the cause or reason.....
cherish them, they come once in a lifetime!
[Posted in FML issue 3886]