Got back late yesterday evening from the vet with one of the ferrets that
Sandi an I got from the shelter in question here.  Dell has been adrenal
for a while and given two Lupron shots over an 8 month to one year
period.  All she did was regrow some hair.  As soon as I got the four
fuzzies that came home with me we headed for the vet.
 
One girl was in pretty good shape compared to the others.  Another little
girl was very undernourished.
 
One big albino boy has a neurologic disorder -- more than likely due to
an injury as per the vet -- and was extremely underweight.  He is also
blind.
 
The one that just came from the vet had a melatonin implant put in on her
first vet visit trying to buy time to build her system up and put some
weight on her.  She also has toes that appear to have been broken at one
time and have healed crooked.  Last week her hair started going fast and
her vulva bulged.  So yesterday she had her surgery.  She also had a
cyst on the inside of her right leg that I was told to "just pop with a
sterilized needle whenever it comes up".  Dr. V completely removed the
cyst with her lazer.  Dell, or Adele as we call her, is now resting
quietly in a chair with John, who she attached herself to as soon as I
got her home.
 
But the saddest was poor Einstein, aka Jasper.  He was 7 1/2 years old.
He was blind so was also hand-fed four times a day and from what I
understood was not let out to play.  His insulinoma had only been treated
with 'diet' instead of proper vet care even thought he several times he
had 'episodes' associated with low blood sugar.  When I got him to the
vet on the Saturday after I got them back to FL his BS, after only a four
hour fast, was only 26.  He was given a shot of Dex and started on Pred.
By Monday he was a new furkid!!  He was out playing in the pool of
shredded paper in it and socializing and playing with the other kids.  We
were so happy and thought he was on the road to a better, and hopefully
longer, life with us.  But on Thursday evening he had a seizure.  I got
Dr. Vargas on the phone and despite the Karo, the injected Pred, the
shots of Dex and lots of praying, he lapsed into a coma.  He died
peacefully in my arms an hour or so later.  I had his body cremated and
his ashes now sit on a shelf amongst all of my other Rainbow Bridge
babies in their memory boxes His ashes are in a special urn that the vet
had him put in.  His remains, if not his fighting spirit, are now in a
Forever Home.
 
Sandi is not exagerrating at all about the shelter these poor guys came
from.  The stench was sickening.  Between the smell of fesces not only of
ferrets but of cats, and the ammonia smell coming from cats litter pans
the smell was enought to make you gag.  The ferrets were kept in cages in
closed, dark rooms with sheets covering the cages.  And the cages were
placed at least three deep against all four walls.  The floors in the
entire house were "crunchy" from the dried poop and dirty, dried litter.
Any that are sick are hand fed and left in their cages.  And all of the
ones that I got on the second visit smelled horrible and their fur was
sticky for some reason.  The first day I bought seven fairly healthy
fuzzies for $25 worth of GA lottery tickets!  The next visit cost me $250
to get one fairly healthy and three sick kids (one of them being my poor
little Einsterin) PLUS a fifth one, the shelter owners personal ferret,
Dell, whichhe handed to me as we were getting ready to leave.  He told me
they can't afford vet care for her or any of the shelter animals.  She is
the little girl that just had surgery.  We saw several sick kids there
that were to the point of needing to be helped to the Bridge.  But the
shelter owner/operators don't believe in euthenasia.  Oh, and they don't
believe in vaccinating for rabies or distemper either!!
 
Sandi and I have both contacted AC in Pensacola and they have promised
to make them improve conditions at the shelter and also promised to make
periodic inspections.  These two visits were the only times I have ever
seen these two people.  I'm not a medical person but neither of them seem
physically able due to age and obvious illnesses to care for the number
of ferrets -- who knows how many as we weren't allowed to look under the
covers -- that they have in their house.  Somehow, someway, these babies
need to be taken away from them and sent to a clean, loving environment.
 
The shelter may have been cleaned up since AC visited . . . but how long
will they be able to keep it that way?  If surgery couldn't be afforded
for their own little one how can they afford surgery and vet care for
others???
 
Yes, if you break it down the $250 and the $25 GA lottery tickets I paid
to help get these ferrets out of that place figures to be cheap if you
break it down per animal.  Just for the five I brought to my place the
vet bills with Dr. Vargas are over $700.  This includes office visits,
rabies and distemper shots, meds, surgery and anything else they needed.
I know that I adopted these kids knowing they had problems.  And I don't
mind a bit what I've had to pay for the or the vet bills.  What upsets me
is the fact that there are may more ferrets in that shelter that need to
have better nutrition and health care.  And the sick and suffering babies
that are ready to go should be helped to cross with dignity.
[Posted in FML issue 5029]