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]