>In the case of Utah there is a window of opportunity - I'd bombard the >Judge of the case. The animal control people are lowly employees. The >Judge can set a sentance such that the woman is no longer legally able to >have animals for a specific number of years. Or no more than a certain >number of animals. One thing that often can help prevent an abuser from having future animals is to show intent to do the same thing again. One of the primary people involved in the rescue operation has already seen to it that the Animal Control people there know about two ads so that those possibly can be used as evidence of intent to commit the crime again (and certainly having the animals housed in a residential area different than her own can be shown to possibly be due to not wanting to be found), but if anyone finds any OTHER ads the abuser placed, or has had such a request from this individual, please, make those public so that they can be passed along to the authorities to help prevent it just happening all over again. --------- >Anybody have any great hints for pre and post surgery? The vet said no >food past midnight but water the whole time. He also said let him eat >what he likes post surgery and that he'll self regulate his activity level >post surgery. My previous experience with the wonder weinies is that they >don't self regulate anything in their little worlds. Any words of wisdom >from the Wise Ones out there? Have a number of tips, and am sure that others have more! If you have back issues of "Modern Ferret" around read the article Alicia wrote on the topic, or check Mary and Eric's website at http://www.modernferret.com to learn about getting back issues. We have had some who did NOT regulate their activity level so we've found that removing temptation helps. We have nothing around that they can climb on for at least the first 5 days. To prevent infection at first do NOT use regular litter; instead use something cleaner like newspaper or Yesterday's News. Watch the incision a few times each day in case of infection. Some rare ones remove their stitches or remove stitches from others; for that reason we have only supervised interactions till the incision is well closed. If a ferret does open stitches there are a number of things the vet can do with the most common being to clean and glue (and maybe also redo the outer stitches). Hydration is essential and so is eating. Giving an easily digested food. Baby foods are often used (Our's have a preference for lamb.) and there is a fine piece of feeding the recovering ferret at http://www.afip.org/ferrets/babyfood.html is very helpful, as can be singing to the ferret (NOT joking), or talking soothingly to the ferret during feeding. If hydration is difficult then the vet may want to sub-cu or restart the IV for a little while to save the ferret and maintain healthy kidneys. If both adrenals come out COMPLETELY (They usually do not come out that cleanly so usually a bit is left from the R one.) then the ferret will need to have medications: Prednisone and Florinef, or Prednisone and Percorten (if recalling the name right) for the rest of life. I am sure that others will jump in with further useful advice. Oh, and be careful to NOT give "extras" until you know that they aren't counter-indicated for the ferret or don't interfere with essential meds, as for example not giving Echinacea with Prednisone, or not giving licorice root with heart disease or large wounds (due to effect on blood pressure), or not giving a lot of vitamin C with anemia. That includes the more "standard" meds: do not give OTCs, including not giving OTC pain meds which can be VERY dangerous or even fatal -- know of someone who bled-out a ferret post-op that way and killed it with either aspirin or something else having an anti-coagulant effect, and of several who destroyed ferret's livers with acetyminephrin (Sp?). If there is obvious unusual pain contact your vet. I am NOT a vet: just someone will long (19 and 1/2 years) ferret background. [Posted in FML issue 3561]