Hello all!
 
Seasons Greetings from the Smalenberg family.  My name is Steve and my wife
Lynne and I have been ferret owners for 3 1/2 years.  We learned about the
FML while attending our first meeting as members of the Great Lakes Ferret
Association (we live in Warren, MI).
 
We have been faithful readers of Modern Ferret and many books to keep
ourselves informed on our little fuzzies, but some of our difficulties
this year have led us to seek more information.
 
Our first baby, Mo (a Marshall Farms sable), died during surgery for
adrenal in Sept.  His hair loss was very slight when we first began to
suspect it in Aug, and our vet at the time dismissed our concerns
suggesting that it was an allergic reaction.  We got a second opinion
after doing some reference checking to find a better vet, and Dr. Wilson
performed the surgery for us.  He found that the tumor was already the size
of a cherry and that 2 arteries passed through the mass, but proceeded with
the operation knowing that doing nothing would eventually lead to death
from internal bleeding when the tumor invaded the artery.  Mo was just over
3 years old.  Even when the surgery was performed, his hair loss was still
slight, noticeable mostly at the base of his tail.
 
Mo's cage mate, Bandit (also a Marshall Farms sable), also 3 years old, did
not take Mo's passing very well.  We were concerned and adopted two little
guys from a local shelter.  Sparkle is a 2 year old albino of unknown
origin (most likely a small breeder).
 
Hopper, our other adoptee, had only been at the shelter for a week and
though he had just been examined by a vet prior to our adopting him, we
found out later that he had gastric ulcers that went undetected.  Hopper
wouldn't eat and after asking around, we initially chalked it up to shelter
shock and decided to wait a day or two and experimented with different food
offerings.  He then developed signs of green slime, and the following
morning, not even a week since we had brought him home, he died on the way
to the vets office.
 
We had lost two fuzzies in about two weeks and as if we weren't distraught
enough, Bandit came down with green slime and developed gastric ulcers on
top of it.  October was a scary time for us with Bandit, including the
night we slept on the floor in front of his cage so that we could check his
breathing every hour or so.  Bandit is a picky eater, and with the ulcers,
we couldn't get him to eat anything (he hates duck soup!).  Force feeding
was causing him too much stress and making the ulcers worse.  Finally, Dr.
Wilson hit on the trick of giving him soy milk alone.  Bandit lived on it
for a few weeks while the ulcer medication did its work and the green slime
ran its course.  I'm happy to say that today he is back on solid food and
up to his full weight and playful as ever.  He has finally adjusted to the
loss of Mo and is accepting Sparkle as his new buddy.
 
Sparkle never developed green slime, I'm guessing because he may have been
previously exposed to it.
 
Sorry this post of introduction was so long, but I wanted to tell our
story.  If you want to see pictures of the guys, go to
http://members.home.net/smalenberg/ and click on "Ferret Area."
Send us an email to tell us what you think!
 
Steve & Lynne Smalenberg (& Bandit & Sparkle)
[Posted in FML issue 2899]