Tuesday a week ago I took three ferrets in for a vet visit, one was Pepper
who had bilateral metastized adrenal cancer and beta cell tumors of the
pancreas and whose surgery was January 1997.  I was surprised to learn how
long it has been - but now he needs more surgery and since he is eating
well, etc, we have opted to give him a chance for more quality time.  Honey
Bun seemed fine and healthy except for an annoying habit he had developed
lately of marking, dragging jills off to a closet and er, ah "humping" same.
Also, he was carrying quite a fat belly.  He was in for a check-up prior to
adrenal surgery because he was five.  Honey Bun was an early neutered
Canadian ferret who had no previous history of illness - a very healthy guy.
 
He checked out well on physical exam, only thing noted was teeth could
probably use a professional cleaning - The Hun is the only ferret I have had
that seems to collect more than his share of tartar.  He went back for blood
chemistry and was routinely placed under Isoflurane for a few minutes while
this was done.  Pepper also had blood work.
 
Well - to shorten the story considerably, Honey Bun had an anaphylaxis to
the Isoflurane.  How could this happen to a ferret who normally would not
have had Isoflurane enough times in his life to become allergic?  Well,
Honey Bun until over a year ago, because of his size, was one of my regular
blood donors.  I have a number of blood donors in my house -- usually the
biggest hobs.  This was the sixth or seventh time he went under induction by
Isoflurane.  Although heroic measures were made to bring him out of the
anaphylaxis reaction by his vet and I went near 48 hours straight with him -
he was lost on Thursday last.  The reason he was unable to "pull out" was
made clear immediately when he went into shock and an x-ray was done.  He
had occult heart disease - displayed by an enlarged heart (not detectable by
stethoscope on physical exam).  When his blood work came back, it showed
evidence of infection by elevated wbc's and bands were 125.  This means that
his bone marrow was pushing out immature blood cells to meet the bodies
demand to fight infection.  The Hun had pericarditis, either primary or
secondary.  And, of course, while all this was going on, Lady Lark (German)
decided to have her babies one day early.  She had ten, which is probably
why they were one day early!  So, I would tend to her while the Hun stayed
over my shoulder and I could keep tabs on how he was doing.
 
I knew we were going to lose him after the first 12-18 hours or so.  He just
was not coming around despite the support.  I am thankful that I had time to
say good-by and accept what was happening to him before he left.  He seemed
most comfortable with his head elevated so when in hospital cage - he was
kept comfortable that way, but most of the time I carried him with his front
legs and head over my shoulder -- like carrying a baby.  He would be calm
and seemed comfortable like that and I so wanted him to know how much I
loved him.  But by Thursday, another x-ray was done and his heart was
considerably more enlarged, heartrate had dropped to 100 (normal is 200 per
minute) and body temp was down to 99, despite efforts to keep him warm and
stabalized.
 
The first time I saw Homey Bun was in a pet store where I had gone for
supplies and spotted this huge blaze head behind a food bowl.  He observed
me solemnly.  I asked if I could see him and laughed when he was handed to
me.  He was huge head and gigantic feet -but not much body!  He was too cute
for words.  Of course he came home with me - but not until I agonized for a
few days.  Hey - yeah I'm a breeder, but I am just as susceptible to pet
store ferrets as anyone else!  He was, however, my last pet store ferret.
He got his name because he was a sweet little honey bun.  This phase did not
last long.  Soon I was calling him Bunny, The Hun or just The Hun.  What a
wild and wooly ferret he turned into.  Nothing was beyond his reach.  I
should have named him Determination.  And boy could that ferret jump.  Most
of his time was spent jumping from one object of furniture to another item
of furniture.  The furniture he always jumped to were places where ferrets
were not allowed to be.  Did I mention he was extremely smart?  Well, he
was.  He had an infallible ability to jump and land where in places
supposedly unreachable by ferrets.  My favorite pictures of Hun show him in
mid-air with body stretched out, tail high and front and back feet straight
out - and joy is seen in those pictures.  Of course he had numerous misses
until he could gage his jump and countless crashes to the floor.  This
resulted, over time, in a joint crippled left front paw.  But there was no
stopping him until just the last year or so when he turned to crimes more
easily committed on the floor or surfaces he could climb.  He was one of my
flying ferrets.
 
The worst crime he committed was the Gardenia Caper.  I had a prize Gardenia
with gorgeous blossoms on a small chest in an alcove in the bedroom.  It was
totally beyond reach of ferret assault.  Yeah.  He spent hours jumping from
the corner of the bed to the chest and always missed.  One morning I awoke
and stepped in dirt and twigs - all that remained of my prize Gardenia.  The
chest was pushed out from the wall.  Could he have done this?  How?  I
placed another flowering plant on the chest.  Sure enough he started
jumping.  Soon I had the chance to see how he did it.  He worked his body
gradually behind the chest, and bracing his back on the wall, pushed hard -
gradually moving the chest.  He would then get on the bed, jump, crash and
get behind the case and push again.  He did this until he finally landed his
jump.  Looked like a clean double Axel to me!  What a smart little devil.
[Posted in FML issue 2271]