I was asked to post more about Odo, the ferret that came to me with
chemical burns on his body, so here is his story.
On Feb 25th, 2001 i was asked to rescue a couples ferrets because they were
moving and couldn't take their ferrets. We had been playing phone tag for
about a week and I was getting concerned about the ferrets , but on that
day I finally got to go pick up Odo and his brother Spooky.
I arrived at a nice apartment complex and found where they were, the wife
and father and her 2 children were packing up and moving. The hubby was
not there because he was moving some of the furniture in a truck. I was
greeted by a 5 yr old girl, covered with dirt, markers, and looked ragged.
Now I have a kid and this was not from one day. she showed me the apt.,
when i entered the aptt, there was a child sleeping in a pile of trash,
filthy as his sister, maybe about 2 yrs old. He also had a major gash on
his face, which I was told was from a razor blade accident. It was very
close to his eye.
The apt was filthy, words can not describe what I had walked into. It was
making me sick. i spotted the ferret cage as it was very large, in the
cornor of the living room. The cage had 2 ferrets in it, a sable and an
albino. There was a food dish in there with kitten chow in it, and a water
bottle with some water in it. Thats the good news. The cage was filled
with poop, 2 overflowing litterboxes, and poop everywhere. No hammys, just
one small kitchen towel that was filthy. Their toys consisted of cigarette
butts, a plastic fork, tongs up, and trash. When the cage was pulled away
from the wall, a mountain of trash fell down.
i was informed that there were 3 ferrets but one died of adrenal dz, but
them later she told me she was found with her head through a hole in a
towel and they think she strangled to death. Who knows?
At his point I examined the ferrets, Odo the sable male is about 6 yrs old,
thin, and raw skin on 1/3 of his left side and raw between his hind legs.
she said she thought he had bugs or something. Spooky, the albino is a
male about 5 yrs old, thin, and he had a tumor on his rt paw that was open
and bleeding everywhere.
at this point I wanted out before i could do or say something stupid and
have them not give me the ferrets.
I loaded up the filthy cage, poop and all. I put the ferrets in a carrier.
as I was leaving i saw another small cage with a hamster in it, i asked to
take it also, but was told it was a flushable pet, don't worry about it.
and they had a cat that they were going to breed, now I'm really wanting
out. The little girl was in my truck saying goodbye to the ferrets and
was very sad, she gave me instructions on taking care of them and to make
sure I loved them, she was going to miss her friends.
i brought Odo and Spooky to the vet the next day. The Dx on Odo is:
malnutrition, heart disease, adrenal and what she believes is a chemical
burn on his body. We also found out he has insulanoma. He is on Pred,
Lasix, and salve for his burns.
Spooky was a little better, not as thin, has to have the tumor removed,
insulanoma, but otherwise fine.
But, now is the big problem, they refuse to eat anything. I have to force
feed them both, which they hate. Odo is going to the vet today as he is
throwing up. As sad as it is, i think they miss their family. if they
never knew what a good life was, then they probably believe that they
were living it. They are with my hospice mom Brenda and she can perform
miracles, and they need it. please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
I want them to actually live a happy and fun life before they cross the
rainbow bridge. I have video of them and their cage, but no pics. when I
can figure out how to put video on my website I will do that. BTW, Odo's
burns are healing up great and now has scabs where the burns were the
worst.
I'll keep you all posted on their progress.
Take care,
CJ
24 Carat Ferret Rescue And Shelter
"where ferrets are treated like gold"
Visit us at:
http://www.geocities.com/a_24k_ferret/
[Posted in FML issue 3359]
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