The first place to check is that trauma, of course.  The first thought
with a high fever is a bad infection.  For alternatives, this time of the
year one of the seasonal biggies for fever is influenza.  We've had one
who fevered very strongly with it many years ago.  If there is influenza
a chest x-ray (and sometimes a chest ultrasound if the x-ray indicates a
need for it) to look for possible secondary pneumonia (which they can
have even when the chest sounds okay, having been there).  The fever
could have a different cause, of course; it's just that this is influenza
season so combined with the foot trauma which is the first place to look,
it's a place to start.  Best of luck!
 
>Who amongst us has truthfully thought, "hey, I better not get this pet
>because there might come a time when I'll be faced with huge vet bills
>that I can't afford".
 
Been there; done that.  Had to while putting myself through college as an
adult student, ditto for my hubby who coped with it for 9 years by pet
sitting and other such time donations.  Then we had to for our first year
on our own together afterward.  It is one reason why I donated time
caring for the animals of others (though some of that was also related
to my educational interests which is how I came to work with a number
of primates and a few procyonids).  I learned the hard way by not
considering such needs when I was younger and first on my own and that
is something for which I forever feel guilty.  Love is essential, but
it doesn't keep sick animals alive.
 
Right now we are without income, and Sevie needs $100 of medicines a week
for her advanced insulinoma and end stage heart disease from Level 3 A/V
Heart Node Block.  She is getting them.  Two years ago we had a year in
which we had $11,500 in veterinary costs and last year we had about
$7,000 in veterinary costs.  It's easy to tell where the money goes
when you realize that we live in a very modest condo, don't go out for
entertainment which carries a price tag much though we do get together
with friends a good deal, have carpet that is going on 18 years old and
very badly needs replacement, have some clothes that I have patched or
altered, have some homemade furniture -- actually a lot of homemade
furniture and used to have some repaired yard sale furniture, have
homemade upholstering, etc.
 
You'd really know when you notice that we keep a weekly budget book.
Nothing helps reduce monies trickling away in unsatisfactory ways as much
as getting an understanding where it is going because then it can be
reallocated more constructively.  There are a lot of things neither
Steve nor I can do in this world, and even more we wouldn't even dream
of trying, but two things we can manage are to budget and to keep the
ferrets in the best shape possible for their medical problems and those
two things are not independent of each other.  I have in the past sent
people copies of weekly budget book pages when they requested them so if
anyone wants copies, just let me know.  To be fully honest, they are an
absolute pain in the butt to do (I truly hate that chore.) but that just
makes them work better because expenses are thought about twice when each
one has to be added in.
 
There actually are a lot of us on the list who can say "Been there; done
that." It is repeated topic of conversation on the FML.  So unless a
large specific group of people left you should expect quite a number to
have been there, and should know that a chunk of such people did learn
the hard way but the important thing is that they learned and that has
helped animals.  Like I said, I still feel guilty about the early
adulthood mistakes I made, but that learning sure has helped later
animals.  As the _Paper Chase_ taught: "Good judgement comes from
experience, which comes from bad judgement." If mistakes aren't for
learning from then what are they for?  (If only I did learn from all
the mistakes I've made I'd be pretty wise; at least I learned from an
important few so that is progress in the right direction even if it's
not as much progress as my mistakes have offered to me.)
[Posted in FML issue 4035]