Greeting and Hallucinations!!
 
Well, one of our charges, Stitches, just came home from the vet.  I am
afraid she is earning her name, since she has been here this is her second
surgery.  She is a silver mitt, and weighs 1 pound.  She has been here
since Sept. 11.
 
Stitches was found in a field ten minutes before it was mowed.  She was in
full blown heat, an incomplete spay.  Well, after the vet examined her, she
went in for surgery, and came out fine.  We started calling her Stitches,
but not because of the stitches, she had a very nasty habit of leaving
holes in hands.  Her attitude has improved greatly, but right at the
moment, she is a little testy and I don't blame her one bit.
 
She had surgery done today, (considering that I had called last night
alarmed at how fast it grew in the past 24 hours, I was impressed that we
were in there this AM, and it cost $195, not bad, considering length of
time he was working on her, and the service) she developed a cyst.  At
first we thought it was a fast growing tumor, X rays were inconclusive, so
we opted for exploratory surgery.  Turns out that the vet removed 120 cc
(yes, 120 cc) of puss.  He closed her up with a marsupial closing.  There
is still an opening which I flush with antibiotics twice a day.  It is
still oozing.  I need to keep it open and flushed for at least a week.  I
flush it out, she starts licking it.
 
It looks horrid, and you have to literally insert the tip of the syringe
when you flush it out.  Both the vet and I are afraid she may cause more
harm than good.  (Hey you think my daughter will stay home if I make her
scruff Stitches while I clean it out right before she goes out on her date?
She has a week stomach) (Ok, so it would be mean)
 
Any ideas on how to keep an Elizabethan collar on a ferret?  Better yet,
how to keep a loose wrap to help keep lint and dirt out of the opening?
 
Ideas and suggestions welcome.
 
Jean
Ferrets Unlimited Ferret Shelter
[Posted in FML issue 2914]