I know I don't post much but I am passing on the story of my loss to try
and help others.

First I must say I have come to understand the only equal to the joy
ferrets bring to our lives; is the sadness when they are gone.

Monday I took my Black Sable boy Raistlin to have a exploratory surgery.
I highly suspected he was adrenal even though his tail was still nice and
full.  A recent X-ray showed a abnormal area just above his bladder.

Looking back I have long suspected Raistlin to have something going on
in his belly.  He had a strange habit of running to the papers or box,
getting ready to potty.  He would do nothing take off, make a big circle
and come back.  Sometimes do this twice before going potty.  He always
seemed to have normal stools and urine.

I took him almost 2 years ago to our state vet college to investigate
things like this and rather puffy areas in his neck (lymph nodes).  They
ran several tests and said he was fine, nothing was apparently wrong.
Over time A couple other small Q's told he was just not himself.  But
trips to my vet never revealed anything.  It became easy to say it was
most all related to what I felt was adrenal problems.

Monday my vet went in and found his left Adrenal glad to be quite large
and almost hemorrhagic.  He was able to remove it and explore the areas
of the X-ray concern.  He felt he had done a good job.

The first few hours went by very well.  Raist was willing to eat and
drink on his own.  Then at 4:45 am I woke to sound of him trying to
vomit.  I noticed he was a little dehydrated.  I gave him soup and lots
of Pedalite fluid.  8 am we went to the vet and he got some subQ fluid.
HE also received a second shot of Antibiotics.  I returned before the vet
closed for more fluid because he had become unwilling to eat or drink.
That night at 9pm he began to paw at his face and gag violently.  We
returned to the vet.  No sign of bleeding, alert ,so more fluids and a
little pain meds.

Raistlin stayed quite ill all night.  I noticed he had stopped passing
any stool even though I would not have expected much at this point.  His
belly was getting hard and swollen.  We returned to the vet first thing
and he went back to the operating table.

Our vet found his small intestine to be on the verge or exploding.  Full
of gas and fluid.  He traced back the intestine and could find no
abnormalities.  He was very puzzled why this was happening.  He did not
feel there was any real hope for recovery.  The normal antibiotics that
would have fought this sort of thing had been given and had no effect.
Plus his insides were all ready in so much trouble.

I asked him not to wake him.  He had been in so much pain all ready, I
could not bear the idea of him dieing slow and miserable.  I asked him to
relive the gas /fluid pressure so he could close him and I could bring
him home.  When he did he found something wedged in the stomach area
where a small valve leads into the large intestine.  He removed it.  It
appeared to be very old black electric tape that had curled.  It had
wedged it self into that small opening.  In Raist's weak state this
foreign object finally struck it's blow.  It made a huge explosion of
bacteria that attacked his intestine.

If only I had known, the vet could have removed it at the time of the
first surgery.  Raist would be fine now.  Not gone forever.  Raist had
been in 1 home before us.  More than likely he has had this object since
I got him.  Always floating around causing small problems.  But since his
blood work, appetite, voiding, stool passing and X-rays never saw this
silent killer, he is gone.

If you feel something is wrong with your pet or family member.  MAKE the
vet or Dr. look into it.  Keep hounding them NO matter how paranoid you
might sound.  We live with them.  WE know when they are sick.

I am just devastated.  He was my second ferret.  He was always gentle and
sweet.  He was on the Valentine cards I sent out on the card exchange.
He is so badly missed and forever loved.  He was only 3-4 years old.  He
learned to dook with us.

Ladyhawk-Kris
[Posted in FML issue 5274]