Yesterday, I walked in to the shelter just in time to become witness to a
most horrifying site.  The mother of a young lady had taken her 20 yr old
daughters ferrets and brought them to us all the way from Evergreen, Co.
A supposedly young female ferret, healthy in all appearances except that
her left eyes was out of the socket and on her face with the right eye
close behind in appearance.  The volunteer handling the surrender calmly
asked me what would be the best thing to do.  I not so calmly said, Right
Now!  I want both of those ferrets at the vet in 15 minutes, no questions.
 
I was extremely anrgy at the thought that anyone would let a ferrets health
deterioate to such a point.  the ferret is obviously blind in both eyes,
which at one point may have been saved with the proper care.  It also
looked extremely painful.  I really wanted to ask this lady if she would
have let her daughters health go to a point where her eyeballs were just
hanging around on her face, but thought better of it.  After all, she
thought she had done a good thing.  As an adult, this lady should have
intervened a long time ago and not let it go this far.
 
My point is to all who know someone who has let their pets health go into
decline so badly that the poor thing was obviously suffering, please ask
them to put their two legged kids in that position, or would they??  At
this point, we have tried drawing fluid off from behind the eye only to
find there was none.  Dr. Mike Georgiades then injected some Dexamethasone
behind the eyes to help reduce the swelling.  It worked in one eye only.
We are making the ferret as comfortable as possible and are going to give
the regimen of treatment now pursued a few days, and as a last resort, will
take one or both eyes and close them forever.  Maxine is her name and she
is so sweet and so tolerant of the pain I know she is in.  We may soon have
three blind ferrets in the shelter and hope that you will all keep her in
your prayers.
 
Some days here...just makes me want to do something I know I will regret.
I remember when I was a fishing boat capt in my other life, we would talk
about halfway fishing trips, keelhauling and anchor practice for folks that
hurt innocent critters.
 
Well enough of that!  Please, at the first sign of trouble, have your vet
check it out.  It just might be something simple that could turn bad quick.
 
Hug 'em all for me,
Ferretguy
[Posted in FML issue 3238]