Nancy, Thanks so much for the warning.
Chris, It HAS been a long time that we've known each other,
hasn't it?
[Yeah, hard to believe it's been 5 years.]
The importance of your service, your kindness, and
the amount of work you've put in over the years have earned our
ever lasting gratitude. (Now aren't you sorry we aren't rich?)
[Damn, and I was just about to yell "send money"! ;-)]
Our first ferret was originally misdiagnosed as having Parvo.
The later guess (Her remains were gone by then) by Mark Burgess
was that she had picked up a not too common illness (name
forgotten -- sorry) which can be caught from traces of bird
droppings on shoes.
[Toxoplasmosis?]
Bill, It's great that Slink is doing so well. Congrats on having
such a toughy.
John Rosloot, your body language may be confusing Buddy or his
may not be being interpreted correctly by you. He could also be
trying to establish what the household dominance structure is
(now that you have been careful enough to rule out organic
causes). We've had ferrets for about 10 years now and always
receive compliments on their behavior, even on how well the
retarded one, Ruffie, NOW behaves even though those tend to have
major biting problems due to fear and confusion. (She still
blows it at times, but impaired ones are usually destroyed as
untrainable which is often NOT true.) Our non-violent trick for
controlling nipping and biting is to have the offender smell a
bit of toothpaste immediately after incident while sternly, in a
low pitched voice barking out "No bite!". You can even hiss.
This combination works better than ANYTHING else we've tried
(though we have heard of others who swear by Bitter Lime, Bitter
Apple, or Sour Grapes). When we do it we make a point of being
dominant by always holding the miscreant in a mother's neck grip.
Being sure of the hierarchy is essential for many critters'
psychological well being and lack of it creates nervousness and
testing. As animals age or pass away it may be retested on a
lesser scale. (BTW, praise usually gets you much farther with
ferrets than punishment does so make a big deal of cuddling and
kissing.)
Had a gyn appointment recently and explained the scratches on a
breast in way familiar to many ferret owners and completely true.
I'd been negligent and had not clipped our fur-faces' claws in 3
weeks, the little one got scared and blouse dived. Ouch. Normal
-- but ouch anyway. (His reply was, "Sure. Right. Well at
least it's different -- usually the cat is blamed." This was an
education for me.) Anyway, it reminded me of perhaps the most
humorous thing which ever happened to me. Steve and I had gone
to a local dairy which had its own store at that time. Hjalmar
(now about 7) was just a kit and along for the ride since
Haleakala loved visting there. My garb was jeans, a loose blouse
which fell to just shy of my waist and a strapless bra (in
deference to upper back damage I have). Hjalmy was being admired
by a very elegant older gentleman when a cow mooed. Dive time!
Bra wound up around my waist with a starled kit sitting in one
cup. Boy, did my face burn.
[Patricia and I fell out of our chairs! This is the best
ferret story ever!]
Hjalmar's Cushings treatments are going well. For those who
don't know he has both adrenals inflammed so can not be operated
upon. On an experimental basis he is being given 50 mg of
Lysodren (at first daily and now every 3 days). Unfortunately,
it only comes in 500 mg pills so we had to contact the maker to
learn its properties (even the smallest capsules turn out to be
too large for him to swallow, and the stuff is inactivated by
saliva, can not be injected, and does not come in liquid form).
The solution turned out to be grinding with a marble mortar and
pestile, then measuring to .025 ml level on a graduated vial, then
mixing with Nutrical (which we buy by the case load from J.B.
Wholesale just as Katy does). The stuff works! Cushings can
kill at any time, but what we think we may be able to acheive for
Hjalmy is as much as another full year of happy life. The funny
part is that he has become randy as all get-out so he gets GREAT
exercise chasing the females and licking or nipping their necks
before he re-realizes that he has no idea what to do about it.
Since he never has known more he seems to regard these episodes
as marvelous fun and is having a wonderful time being a Rudolph-
Valentino-movie-character impersonator.
Other fine news is that his aberrant sugar readings now do not
appear to be from an insulinoma, but seem to have been an
artifact of his other health problems ( a real relief after Frit
had insulinoma with her lympho), the Efa-Z Plus is doing a
perfect job of handling his zinc absorbsion difficulties
(warning: zinc deficiency can also happen from them getting too
much calcium as is found in many fish based foods), and we found
that Tresaderm works to handle ear mites which have become immune
to more common treatments.
Anyone out there with an old critter may want to watch for foot
pad roughening with keratoses (thick and hard growths). It can
happen from nutritional problems (including zinc deficiency) and
from age alone. Softening the pads with vegetable oil (and
treating the cause when possible) will make the feet more
comfortable and encourage the animal to exercise more.
Katy, It's great how wonderfully Bandit has been doing. Isn't it
something how much lymphosarcoma treatment has improved over the
years? Just a year ago Fritter was the longest survivor known
(We can't recall how long it was -- the loss just became too
painful so we've blocked memories-- was it 6 months (?), 8
months(?)) Now Bandit is in remission!!!!! Major
congratulations. Testing new treatments is so important, not
just because of the time -- and so very often happiness -- it
gives the sick critter, but also because of how much is learned.
Posting medical information over the net has kept so many family
members alive, hasn't it? Your Bandit may be saving one of our
guys.
I admit defeat in my attempts to make our current computer room
door ferret proof from 'Chopper. We'll just have to cut a wood
one or plexiglass one to fit and buy a few new tension curtain
bars to keep it in place. Yes, 'Choppy is smarter than me on
this score. In fact, right now she is busy trying to figure out
the alligator clip on their cage, having worn Meltdown out with a
rousing game of chase -the- dalek, the only perfect use in this
world of a plastic tub.
[Soaking paintbrushes, with slots in the lid to hold the handles?
Sorry, just spent several hours out in the garage spreading very
smelly stuff over the front stairs, which aren't in front at the
moment.]
Our best to all, Hjalmar,
Meltdown, Ruffle, 'Choppy, and
Sukie and Steve who are stuck with only 2 legs each
[Posted in FML issue 0277]
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