His kidneys failed him and he had a mercy shot as the final gift. This
was his fourth time in life with a life-threatening urinary tract
illness. If he had not had the other three near failures something of
this size may not have been enough to take him. On the other hand, due
to diligent care (IV, subcu, surgery, and more) he got another 7 years
of life after his kidneys almost failed him the first time. Steve and
I are very grateful for those 7 years. People are not supposed to have
favorites, but Steve and I both think that he may well have been the
best animal either of us ever had in our lives.

Hilbert was a perfect example of why veterinary care is so very
important, and why IV and then patience and loads of careful home care
can give a ferret so much more quality time if the ferret is not very
old. His first bout of kidney disease was so severe that it took him a
year to get back to full energy and a year and half to get back to full
weight. Instead of dying in his first year he passed just shy of 8
years old thanks to excellent care whenever he needed it. He was worth
every hour and every dollar.

He had more than one terminal condition at the time he passed and they
were pretty much in a race to see which got too bad first.

Hilbert's final resting place is in a shady grove near a pond with a
large piece of shale forming a one-rock cairn that covers the top of
his grave. Deer bed down near there; he'd probably have found that
interesting.

To those on the Ferret Health List: please, remember that the FHL does
not take sympathy posts which don't contain new health information. I
can not promise to have time to answer sympathy posts promptly. It will
depend on whether I find physical work more comforting or not and on
how many arrive, so patience, please.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 6812]