I want to tell you all about a very special ferret, MY very special
ferret. Her name is Ruby.( Ruby-Do) To tell her story I must go back
a few years.

I had a little ferret family of three, Holly, Buddy, and Ruby. They
were full of life and healthy as any ferres could be for quite a long
time. Then, as it seems it musts happen, Holly got sick. Lymphoma.
She forght a hard fight but only lived 8 mos with her illness. I was,
to say the least devastated. But just before she died, Buddy started
acting ill. I took him in. A mass in his belly. The dr told me after
Buddy's surgery that it was a very enlarged kidney. He saw one sligly
inflamed lymph node, but he told me he does not have lymphoma. In one
week that diagnosis changed as swollen lymphnodes were everywhere. So
on the heels of losing my Holly, Now I would soon lose my precious
Buddy. 2 months. My boy lived two months. The surgfery had taken so
much out of him he had no fight left. I buried him next to Holly in our
ever growing ferret cememtary. Before Buddy go sick, we had taken him
to the shelter to pick out a friend, so it wasn't that Ruby was the
only ferret I had. Still we needed a third for our family of ferrets
and Dakota came to live with us. Not very long at all after Buddy was
gone I felt it. That first tiny lump under the armpit where you catch
your breath and say, Oh God no. But yes, Now my Ruby had lymphoma too.
(this was April, 2011) My whole little ferret family before Dakota and
Cody came was going to be wiped out from lymphoma. I started her on
Pred, which I always did my lymphomc ferrets(I've had ferrets for about
15 yrs so I did have others) Ruby did well for a long time. Then came
the swelling from the Pred. She started to really slow down about 1 yr
after starting the Pred. She came to the point where you start TRYING
to prepare yourself. You call the vet and make sure he's going to be in
and you start looking for that final sign that says they've fought all
they can. I stopped the Pred, June 2012. I thought, what a miracle that
she lived that long with Lymphoma and readied my heart for that awful
pain. The day after I stopped the pred, she still was hanging n there,
not really struggling quite as much as the day before. The next day
after that, she seemed a lot better than the day before. And here is
where my miracle girl started to come back to life. In the days to come
she got stronger, dropped some weight and strted being more interested
in her surroundings. I thouht, Hmm, maybe I'll get more time with
her.NEVER did I ever dream, that ONE YEAR LATER she was doing "fine"
Swollen still with fat pads where the lymphoma WAS. I had taken her
in to the dr. and he just said, (as he shook his head, looks like the
Pred put her in remission!! My thought was thinking it was the ESSIAC,
a holistictic drug used in people for cancers and immune system
boosting.I had used Essiac with Holly and Buddy. I thought Holly's
living 8 months was great! I never expected this with Ruby. She started
to play, and hide toys and act like a normal ferret. THAT, my dear
friends is the miracle. In April, it will be TWO YEARS since her
diagnosis. Her only symptoms now are a little weakness and all the
extra bulk from the fatty areas where the lymphoma was. She plays in
the "shred" box(Paper from the shredder, Actually that's her favorite
place to be. I have to remember she's in there before I go to bed
because she has difficulty getting out of it. She can and has but I
like to help her. Another favorite of hers, and her 2 brothers, is the
big "sleep number" bag. It's not really plastic, like a grocery bag,
but a sturdy plastic that makes a LOT of noise. Just yesterday I caught
her and her brother Cody playing together in it.What was odd, is that
when Ruby was very ill, Cody picked on her relentlessly. I guess the
trhow back to survival of the fittest, and pecking order. She was the
weak one and Cody knew that. Now, he still picks on her once in a
while, but he trys to play with her more often than not these days.She
is eating treats again even though wwe ran out of Friskies Dental Diet,
her favorite. She now loves banana Bandits. This is where her weakness
shows as she has a little trouble chewing.

I don't know how much longer my miracle girl will live but I've started
to let my guard down and have stoppedthinking of her and treating her
as a dying ferret. I got her a melatonin implant just like the boys
(all 3 are adrenal). Before I would have thought, she wouldn't live
long enough to get the benefits, but now it's we have no idea how
long she'll live, just like we have no idea how long any ferret will
live.Thing is with her, I'm beginning to think she really wasn't
adrenal before (she had rat tail and a small bare spot on her back)
Her winter coat, even before the implant is now beautiful and lush.

Every morning and every evening my baby girl who is now SIX!, a
birthday I NEVER thought she's see, gets her gravy with Essiac. I don't
know for 100% sure that it's the Essaic allowing my miracle girl to
have a (almost perfectly) normal life this long after diagnosis. And
there was NO DOUBT it was the correct diagnosis. Evry day, I hold her
and smother her with kisses. Every time she gets gravy I hold her until
she is done. (A practice I started doing when I had a sick ferret) Now
i just got done telling you I don't treat her like a sick ferret, it's
just that now, I've got her so spoiled, she wont take all of her gravy
unles I hold her!! Very recently she has started letting me skritch her
head when she is done eating. She loves this SO MUCH. She grinds her
little head into my hand like, Oh yeah , that's the spot, oh don't stop
Mom!! Ahhhh! I LOVE IT, I LOVE DOING IT!!! Imagine all this enjoyment
of life when I was one day away from taking her in for that final visit
2 years ago!!!!!!

Ruby is my miracle. I wanted you to know about her. She enjoys life
and loves me, and that's the best I can do for her. I NEVER dreamed
she would still be here for me to love in my arms. It makes me wonder
though., Yes, Pred is very helpful, but after I stopped the Pred she
got better. What if I had done that with other ferrets when it got
to the pont it was no longer beneficial. Would I have had my other
lymphomic ferrets longer. I only stopped the Pred because it was no
longer doing anything. Just don't give up on your sick baby until they
tell you they're done. If I had rushed her in for that shot, it just
gives me the shakes. I thank her everyday for being such a warrior,
such a fighter, and for being my miracle.

Now you know the story of my miracle girl. I hope you have miracle
ferts of your own to treasure as much as I treasure my Ruby.

[Posted in FML 8051]