This is a tough one.  As some of you will remember, last summer, ECE hit my
shelter with a vengeance.  At the time I had about 23 ferrets in my home
alone.  The las of my gang to get it was Chena.  He had only been with me a
short time and was found at the Chena Lakes Campground near the outhouses.
When he started to show symptons we began treatment right away.  He did not
respond as well as the others did and it literally took 3 months of force
feeding and sub q fluids to bring him around.  About 6 months ago I had a
BG test run when He was not getting around as well as I thought he should
for an older boy.  Sure enough.  it was low.  We started him on pred and he
developed the pred belly which did not help in his hind end weakness at
all.  But he got out of his cage every day and scooted around for a few
minutes before finding a nice blankie to snuggle inside of.
 
On Friday morning, I gave him his medicine as usual and he looked and
acted the same, I cleaned out their litter box (he was housed with another
insulinomic boy, Peek-A-Boo)  Let him out for a fwe minutes and then put
them back to snuggle down.  Well Friday night, I was about to do my normal
cage cleaning and let the main cage out to play while I cleaned out the
others.  I opened Chena's cage, but Boo just looked at me.  I told him he
was a silly boy and lifted him out to play, the I noticed Chena not looking
at me as he usually does, my heart just stopped.  I reached for him but he
was cold.  Boo had been snuggled around him.  The vet figures he died
sometime in the last 3 hours  He dide calmly and peacefully in his sleep.
There was no sign of trauma and no screaming seizures like Grandpa.  With
his best friend beside him, He just quietly slipped into the arms of my
eternal father before I am sure that he RAN to greet his friends Roxie,
Maggie, Grandpa, Jasper and Chaos, as well as Miss Kitty.  It seems harder
when you lose one that you have previously worked so hard on and fought so
hard for.
 
Diana and The Ferret Farm
[Posted in FML issue 2804]