Hi everyone!
 
I adopted Lucas from Candi Gerritson's "Dooks and Crooks Ferret Shelter"
in Iowa the end of June.  He is a young albino and was very sweet.  He
was one of a bonded pair, so naturally his buddy Sam came home with us
as well.
 
Lucas became very ill shortly after he arrived at his new forever home
and we took him to our ferret vet Dr. Dirks in Spirit Lake.  *I can't say
enough about this gentle knowledgeable man... Thank God we've got him here
in town*  Just days before the 9/11 crisis happened, Doc did exploratory
surgery on our Lucas and came out of the back room shaking his head.
 
"He's just got an unholy mess in there" were Doc's words.  Insulinoma,
Adrenal- both sides.  And one **huge** inoperable cancerous tumor grown
into his lung, spleen and stomach.  Doc felt Lucas would never recover
from surgery that extensive if he tried removing so large a growth, so
we brought the little guy home to have a happy carefree couple of weeks
before we'd need to help him over the bridge.  Doc said it could be a
matter of days for him.
 
Huh?  Who says??  --Its been three months and our ratty looking little
bald skinny boy has regrown his hair, eats like a thresher, leaves
completely normal turds when he poo's, and is still holding his own on
the weight.  I just can't believe how wonderful he looks~!  What do you
suppose is going on?
 
Could it be the darling little girl we adopted last month?  Camile came
from Candi's shelter too, and she's the spunkiest little she-devil on four
feet you'll ever see~ and it *could* be that Lucas has found a reason to
try to live.... for love!  (Oh yes, he's still sick, no doubt about it,
but) it's just wonderful to see how things have improved for him with his
new 'best buddy' to hang out with!  Does this kind of remission happen
often to sick ferrets when a new one moves in?  Any comments?
 
--- Latas Kimberly
--- [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 3632]