Hi all.  I know I do not post a lot but I have been here always reading
all of your posts and crying when some of your ferrets were ill or sick
or passed on.
 
Today it is with such a heavy heart and tears blurring my eyes that my
beloved ferret Dale passed on.
 
Dale as some of you know was a Blaze ferret who was deaf.  I did not know
this until I noticed he did not seem to come to me or hear me trying to
give him a toy.  My vet verified he was deaf.  It was Wolfy who told me
to come visit her web site where she has an entire web site for deaf
ferrets.  Thanks to learning about deaf ferrets I trained Dale with hand
signals and he was one very feisty happy and loved ferret.
 
Dale has a cage mate named Rusty and they were so close they played and
slept together all of the time.  All of a sudden at 12:34am this past
Saturday ( or should I say Sunday since it really was but I did not sleep
yet) I heard one of the ferrets cough and went to check up on them.  I
found Dale was grinding his teeth and throwing up.  I took him out of his
cage and tried to give him some water.  He drank a lot and then seemed
fine.  I noticed he did not want to eat yesterday and there is no vet
open so I went and bought some Gerber's Stage 2 chicken food and gave him
some.  He ate all day yesterday and seemed like he was getting better.  I
was praying that he would hold on until today when my vet could see him
but..  When I went to open Dale's cage I found that he was gone.  I have
no idea what happened.  The symptoms he had were he seemed to have thrown
up what appeared to look like a hairball.  and he was not eating.  I
cannot believe he is gone.  I was with him almost all day and night since
he was not feeling well.  I now feel I am to blame because there was no
vet to take him to due to it being Sunday.
 
I know I am being too hard on myself but I am so upset with him passing
over the rainbow bridge at age almost 3.  He was going to be three in
December.  I must say that because he was deaf I learned one very
important thing ..Love is never silent despite him not hearing me tell
him I loved him I do know from my body language he knew ..
 
I hope Rusty will be okay without his friend Dale and just hope and pray
that somehow I will get past blaming myself for Dale's passing.
 
Has anyone here ever heard of any ferret having the same thing as Dale
and pass on?  If so what could this illness be?  I wish I knew..so I
can put my mind at ease that it was not my fault Dale passed on due to
becoming ill early Sunday morning when there are no vets available.
 
Thank you all for letting me cry and pour my heart out here..Please ,
Sandie watch for my beloved best friend Dale and since he cannot hear
please give him a hug from his grieving Mommy..
 
With a broken heavy heart,
Michele and Rusty
[Posted in FML issue 4684]