Thank you to all of you who visited my web page & said how nice it was.
 
Harley had surgery today on his other eye.  He didn't loose it, nor would we
allow that to happen to him.  An abcess began to form in the front corner of
his eye (due to the Actinomyces).  We tried to do a needle aspiration of the
abscess, but the pus was too thick.
 
The doctor made a small incision in the corner of Harley's eye and squeezed
out a thick green mucus (BLAH!!).  I stayed with Harley during the surgery
and I think he appreciated it.  As soon as he woke up, he lunged towards me
and gave me a kiss.
 
Had it not been for Dr. Bruce Williams, we would never have known that
Harley had Actinomyces and would have continued to think it was Lymphoma.
Now that we know, we will try everything in our power to make him better
without causing him unnecacry suffering.
 
I have decided that if we need to remove his other eye, we won't.  It was
hard for me to make that choice as I love him dearly and wouldn't want to
loose him.  But, Harley's happiness has to come first and I know he wouldn't
understand being blind all of a sudden.  When ferrets go blind, it's done so
gradually not suddenly.  He just wouldn't understand.
 
Thankfully, we don't have to make that decision and hope we never will.
Harley will have to be on antibiotics for at least 4 months and we sent a
sample of the mucus to a lab to see what antibiotics would work best.
Actinomyces is VERY rare in ferrets and sometimes prognosis is poor.  For
now, I won't think of this & will fight for this little boy!!
 
Please keep him in your thoughts tonight.
 
Love, Randy
 
http://home.echo-on.net/~magick
[Posted in FML issue 2143]