Dear FML Friends, April and Mz. Liz,

I am with Ardith and Alexandra - I'm here to help. As a Hospice Mom,
most of the ferrets I get do not come bouncing in the door. I need
some really, really good food, food I can trust to do the best for
these kids.

When the ferret kid is flat, on the bottom of the cage, when you pick
her up, you have to be careful, she flops over your hand, more hanging
off than on. Could slip away and you would not know it, what do you do.

She has not eaten for days, not has she had any fluids. This kid lived
in a bird cage, nice cage for a bird, and the water bottle was up high.
No perches so you would have to have wings. Bars to slippery, and no
cross pieces, even for a ferret to climb, besides, she was to weak.

WHAT TO DO.? She looks at me with those sad eyes, saying "I want to eat,
but I can't. New Mom, I;m sorry." Do you put her down???? Not without a
fight.

I say - hold on Maddie - I'm afixin somethin'."

I grind up my TOTALLY FERRET KIBBLE, add my supplements from Alicia at
Ferretwise, heat it to a nice warm temp,take it off the stove, put it
on my "coffee cup desk warmer" and we sit down. I put a drop on my
finger and rub her lips. She licks her lips. We do it again. And again,
and again and again. When she gets tired, she goes into my shirt where
I can keep her warm and she can hear my heart beating, thump, thump,
thump, sort of like mommas where she was warm and secure before all
this happened to her.

After a short nap, she stirs again, the eyes are just a bit brighter,
or maybe I just think so. We do the finger lickin' again. After several
of these sessions, she goes to sleep for an hour or two. Now the head
is up, not by much, but it is not dragging over my hand. I have kept
the Totally Ferret Soup warm and we do it again, sometimes through the
night.

In the morning, after we eat again, we have graduated to the small
measuring spoon, and we are licking it up ourselves. I call Alicia -
"Hey Dude, I think I;m gonna make it." She says keep in touch. By that
noon, we visit the potty, not strong enough to make it over the side,
that's okay - food is going through, that's better than getting more
IRS refund than I thought.

Just one little Chocolate bit size poop, but it is looking good. Things
improve, we eat more, we began to notice we are not in the old cage,
and there are other ferrets. We have a water bottle we can reach, but
is is cold, so back to the Totally Ferret soup. We visit the side of
the litter pan. Doin' good. The new lady that brings the soup is
smiling.

Fast Forward - We still get our soup, but we are nosing in the Totally
Ferret kibble. The ferret in the next cage leans over and whispers,
"Don't recover to soon, soak up all the attention you can - we'll be
rooting for you and soon you can come and live and play with us."

Next day, the new comer is up and walking around, eats her soup by
herself, checks out the kibble dish, tries the water bottle, visits the
litter pan, no more chocolate bits, doin' good, and Hospice Mom puts
the peanut butter and jelly away and cooks a potato with turkey burger
and peas for herself.

I cannot tell you how many times I have lived this way, more than I can
count. I could not do it alone. In my opinion, Totally Ferret is "Manna
From Heaven," You can find no better food for your ferret.

Alexandra - next time, try it warm!!!

Marilyn Ledoux at Ledoux Hospice.

[Posted in FML 6836]