Another sign on the bulletin board at work-"2 ferrets, free to good home.
4 year old female, 5 year old male" So, me being me, I made the phone
call.  Girl getting married, fianc=E9 got an apartment that didn't allow
ferrets.  She'd raised both of the kids from babies, but was giving them
up.  Right now they were with a couple of vet students.  Talked to my
husband and he said to have them come to us.
 
So on a rainy afternoon in the middle of February "F" and Penelope, aka
Nelly, came to live with us.  F is a sable boy, Nelly a beautiful silver
mitt girl.  Girl brought them in, I introduced her to the rest of the Crew
of Merry Mayhem and told her I had 3 adrenal surgeries coming up in March.
She couldn't wait to get out of the house, and after she was gone I found
out why.  I was cuddling each of them in turn, Nelly was on her back and
I see this huge, swollen vulva.  Okay, 4 adrenal surgeries in March.
 
March 13 dawned and Nelly, Jill, Fang, and Conan all had adrenal
surgeries, Alix had a mast cell tumor removed.  Nelly and Jill were close
to complete adrenalectomies.  Jill's right is embedded in the vena cava
and encapsulated, so the vet got as much as he could.  Nelly's adrenal was
encapsulated and laying on top of the vena cava, so he took almost all of
it, and the left.  He felt he'd left enough to keep her off prednisone.
Fang was on her 2nd adrenal, and we thought maybe the right was bad.  It
was a little enlarged, but not enough to have caused all the hair loss and
the continued swollen vulva.  Turned out she had an ectopic left adrenal!
So out went that.  Conan had a huge left, and ectopic, so that all came
out, and Alix was the easiest.
 
All the kids came through with flying colors, and all were feeling fine.
Last night about 10:30pm I let the group Nelly and F are in out, and she
fell over.  She'd lost all her weight, was severely dehydrated.  I knew
there was no ferret vet at the clinic, just interns, so every hour on the
hour I was giving her sugar water for glucose-I don't have any sub q
fluids, but will try to from now on.  The vets got in at 8 this morning,
and we had a 10 am appointment.  We got there, and she'd lost all the
fluids I'd given her.  So she was put onto sub q's, bloodwork, you name
it was being done.  Got a call at 12:45 pm, and Nelly had crossed to the
Rainbow Bridge.  I don't know whose more upset right now, my husband, me,
the vet who did the surgery, or the vets at the clinic.  They told me her
kidney readings were off the charts, and that she might have had some
problem before surgery.  So I'm having a necropsy run, and then I'll get
her back for cremation, and she'll go in the memory box with the others.
 
Sandee-please watch out for a beautiful silver mitt girl.  Please have
Socks, Bailey, Suzy, and Nibbles meet her.  She never knew them, they were
here and gone before she arrived, and I know she'll be nervous by being
alone.  Tell her I'm sorry I didn't get to tell her about the Bridge,
tell her I'm so sorry she didn't get to come back home this time.  I'm so
torn up over this-I feel like I should have done more.  Nelly, Nelerpee,
Penelerpe, my other little silver girl is gone.  I have to sit and talk
to F because she won't be there to cuddle with him.  He's still depressed
over being shuffled around, and now he'll have an even harder time.  I
wish I knew what more I could have done for her, what went wrong.  I'm
sorry-I have things in my eyes right now and can't see the screen and I
know I'm rambling.  Sandee-please watch for her.
 
Rebecca & the sad Crew of Merry Mayhem
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and
 taste good with ketchup"
"Support bacteria, it's the only culture some people have"
[Posted in FML issue 3738]