I just wanted to take this time out to thank all the people that sent
really helpful emails to me regarding my poor little Dudley.  It's really
nice to know that there are people out their that understand and care
(and don't think i'm crazy if my vet bills go over 500 dollars).  Due to
the large amount of people that contacted me with their advice and their
well wishings I figured it would be a little easier to post a reply in
this forum.
 
As you may remember (to make a long story short) I thought he was going
to die he went from 2.5 lbs to 1.3lbs in less than a month and had black
tarry stools....basically exhibited all the signs for gastric ulcers.  I
took him to the vet's where they put him on carafate, amoxi, and pepcid.
He didn't respond at all after two weeks (feeding him every three hours)
so I took him in for exploratory where they found that 80% of his stomach
was "abnormal".  I finally got the result back from the biopsy and it was
inflamation, not cancer.  The vet put him on a small daily dose of pred
(along with all the other meds) he is doing great.  The started eating
and drinking on his own two days ago and is beginning to put on a little
weight, and he lost that squinty pained look in his eyes and stopped
grinding his teeth.  So THANK YOU everyone for all your support because
it really looked like I was going to lose him and I was a complete mess
and definetly needed to hear from all the caring ferret folk.  But as a
bonus I found the best ever sick ferret product....it's a microwavable
heating pad for ferrets called Snuggle Safe and it can be found at
www.snugglesafe.co.uk it is such a great product!!!!!!!
 
Thanks Again,
Lisa and the Diabolical Dozen (especially Dud Muffin)
[Posted in FML issue 4191]