[2-part post combined.  BIG]
This message is a reminder to all of us to never take our little ones for
granted, and enjoy every moment we have with them.  Many of you may recall
that in November I adopted a wonderful little (well, little compared to
say, a dog) boy named Bandit, who promptly gave my two girls, Spot and
Frito, ECE.  Spot recovered rather quickly, and Frito took a few extra
weeks of flagyl and sub-q fluids to get back to normal.  Both have
intermittent odd stools, but nothing too worrisome.  Last week I came home
from work and about midnight, early for me, and found Spot weak, lethargic,
and blazingly hot.  It didn't appear that she had gotten out of the hammock
all day.  I drove her down to the Animal Medical Center, a trip that under
the best of circumstances takes an hour, in a horrible snowstorm, and of
course nothing was plowed until I got into the city.  They are so great at
the AMC, and I have had such great success with their doctors that as soon
as I dropped her off, I felt better.  I figured that they'd figure out what
was wrong, keep her a few days, fix her up, I'd pay my thousand dollars and
go happily on my way.
 
My heart sank the next day when the doctor told me that Spot's kidneys were
failing and they didn't know why.  Three days of IV fluids failed to bring
her kidney enzyme levels up to anywhere near the normal range.  Their
kidney specialist looked at her bloodwork and urinalysis, and recommended a
fine needle aspiration of the kidney to see if a cause could be determined.
Examination of the tissue revealed an abnormality in her white blood cells.
I can't remember the actual term, I am so numb from the last week, but it's
apparently incredibly rare.  It's not cancer, which is not really good
news, since at least they have treatment for cancer.  They have never seen
it before in a ferret, and only twice before in cats.  The good news is
they let me bring her home yesterday.  She gets tired very quickly, but
she has some brief spurts of playfulness, which I indulge heartily.  I
have to give her amphojel and sub-q fluids twice a day, and it's horrible.
She's so tiny and she acts like I am trying to kill her.  I know it must
feel awful, and she doesn't understand that it's helping her, but it still
breaks my heart.  I heat up the fluid a little bit to make it sting less,
but that only helps a little, and 30cc of fluid in the scruff of the neck
on a 1.25 lb ferret makes her look like the hunchback of Notre Dame for
15 or 20 minutes while it absorbs.  The bad news of course, is that they
really don't know how long she has.  They are showing her tests to everyone
they can get to look at them, hoping for a solution, but it doesn't look
good.  This has been the longest week of my life.  I am glad just to have
her home, but I hope they can come up with something to help her.
 
Anyway, I know this is a long post, but my point is, never take your babies
for granted.  Spot just turned 3 last month, and I never expected to have
to wonder how many days we have left together.  I cherish every moment I
get to spend with her, and I keep hoping for a miracle.
 
Thanks for listening,
Gail, Spot, Frito and Bandit
 
Gail
 
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I'm against testing on animals.  They get all confused and get all the
answers wrong.
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web page http://www.frontiernet.net/~ncc2893
[Posted in FML issue 2950]