Happy Thanksgiving From Chin Soon and the Other Ferrets

A very Happy Thanksgiving from Chin Soon and the other ferrets.

OK, Chin Soon probably doesn´t know anything about Thanksgiving. The holiday was a good excuse to share a new,cute picture of her standing up on the plexiglass barrier that keeps her out of the kitchen. Yes, she has a full winter coat. Chin Soon is doing just brilliantly since recovering from her surgery in April and is as playful and crazy as ever.

Ella and Zephyr are doing just fine too. I´ll have more cute pictures here and on their website soon.

Happy Belated Birthday, Chin Soon

Life's been crazy busy lately and I didn't post last week about an important event. Last week was 5 years and a month since Chin Soon's rescue. We were told she was 11 months old then. That means she had her sixth birthday. Since we don't know her exact date of birth we mark her birthday by the anniversary of her rescue. Happy belated birthday, Chin Soon! I'll try to get some new, cute pictures taken soon for all to see.

Oh, and yes, Chin Soon did fully recover from her vaccination reactions and her surgery. She's bouncy and playful and acts like a young ferret again even though she's now officially "geriatric". Just don't tell her that. Last night Chin Soon and Ella took turns pouncing each other and wrestling like crazy. Ella is now about 7½ and she also doesn't know she's supposed to be old. I think Chin Soon thought it was time that she became dominant alpha and Ella was having no part of that. Ella is still the toughest ferret of the three. She doesn't start fights but she sure finishes them. In that way she reminds me of Tenchi, our first ferret and then our first alpha once ferret math struck., even if she looks more like a miniature version of Kodo (a/k/a Big Bear).

Anyway, my housemate and I did pick up a small cake to celebrate the occasion. It's been a good birthday for Chin Soon and we're thrilled she's still around to brighten our lives.

Chin Soon's Delayed Reaction To Her Distemper Vaccination

Last Tuesday it seemed that Chin Soon's reaction to her distemper vaccination was the least severe of the three. By last night Ella and Zephyr were completely back to normal and were especially playful. They were the proverbial energizer weasels: they kept going and going. Chin Soon continued to look and feel out of sorts while the others recovered and by last night it looked like she was in serious trouble. She had no energy at all and still seemed off balance. By last night it was so bad she could barely walk. Chin Soon had obviously been losing weight despite still having her usually strong appetite for chicken gravy. I'm just not sure she was eating much of anything else. She was weak but it didn't look at all the same as when she had insulinoma. She just plain looked miserable.

I was able to reach Dr. Powers around 10 PM last night and she really came through for Chin Soon and for me. Based on her instructions I gave Chin Soon 0.05ml of pediapred (1mg/ml concentration) as an anti-inflammatory. We still had pred in the house from when she was taking it for insulinoma. I also gave her a tiny amount of famotidine (generic for Pepcid AC) crushed up in some more gravy. I've been offering her gravy every three to four hours since then. If need be Dr. Powers offered to see Chin Soon today on an emergency basis. Thankfully it wasn't necessary.

The good news is that Chin Soon seems to have turned the corner and is slowly improving. She's more perky and is eating plenty of gravy when offered. She doesn't feel nearly as light. I checked her blood glucose just in case and it was a nice, normal 101 this morning. Dr. Powers called to check up on Chin Soon and instructed me to continue the pediapred once a day for another couple of days and to continue carafate (now discontinued for the other ferrets) and the famotidine for another four days. We'll touch base on Monday or Tuesday.

Chin Soon is scheduled for her rabies vaccination and having her teeth cleaned right after the 4th of July holiday. Right now it's an open question whether or not we'll go ahead with either of those things. It all depends on how she recovers from here on out.

Three Vaccinations, Three Reactions

Ella, Zephyr and Chin Soon all went to see Dr. Lauren Powers at Carolina Veterinary Specialists today to have their regular checkups and their annual distemper vaccinations. All three ferrets have had previous reactions to Merial Purevax, which has become the standard distemper vaccination. The older vaccine, Fervac-D, had a high rate of adverse reactions. Merial Purevax is supposed to have a very low reaction rate. Unfortunately my ferrets don't seem to know that. Anyway, in the past when a ferret of mine had a relatively minor reaction we pretreated with Benadryl the following year and there were no problems at all. This year my ferrets all had adverse reactions despite being pretreated, something I had never seen before.

The reactions included vomiting and diarrhea. Chin Soon's reaction was relatively mild. Ella and Zephyr both needed dex-s injections, a famotidine injection to settle their stomachs, and sub-q fluids to rehydrate them. Zephyr, who seemed to have the most severe reaction, stayed with Dr. Powers the longest. After three hours at the vet we finally were able to head for home thinking the worst had passed.

On the last leg of the trip home one of the ferrets (probably Zephyr, but we can't really be sure) had nasty, seriously bloody diarrhea. That qualifies as a severe reaction. I called Dr. Powers and while my housemate watched the ferrets like a hawk I ran out to the pharmacy before closing to get some carafate. If the problem recurred someone was going back to the vet for the night. Thankfully that didn't happen. Zephyr and Ella still have upset stomachs (not unexpected) but no blood. Chin Soon had little energy tonight but her stool is almost back to normal. Everyone involved, ferret and human, had a very rough day. It also turned into a somewhat expensive day, as in well over $200 all told.

Ella will be eight before she is due for another distemper vaccination. Dr. Powers has already advised me not to vaccinate her again. Between her age and the reaction it just is safer not to. Zephyr and Chin Soon will be vaccinated next year assuming they are healthy but will be pretreated with dexamethasone as well as Benadryl to prevent this from happening again.

After the fourth of July weekend all go back to the vet for their rabies vaccinations. They all have reacted to that before as well. Rabies vaccinations are mandatory where I live so we will go ahead with those. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of today's very long and very unpleasant vet visit. Ella will also have blood work done then. No, nothing is wrong. It's just something our vet likes to do every six months to catch any problems early in ferrets over seven years old.

There was good news today. Chin Soon's blood glucose was a nice, normal 109. She got a clean bill of health and has completely recovered from her April insulinoma and adrenal surgery. Dr. Powers commented that her coat is so full now you can't even tell that she had surgery. Her teeth and gums are still pretty nasty and she will have them properly scaled and cleaned next visit.

Ella is also blissfully healthy. Even though she is just about blind and occasionally bumps into things her pupils still react to a strong light and there are no signs of cataracts. Her spleen is still moderately enlarged but, as expected, we aren't going to worry about that and she has no symptoms that indicate it's a problem. It's been four and a half years since Dr. Powers did her adrenal surgery and she really has had no problems other than vaccination reactions (now three in all) since then.

Zephyr is the only ferret of my three who has never had a major health issue. Despite all that happened today she had a decent amount of energy tonight and acter like her normal self.

It's been a long day and I'm glad it's over.

Too Hot For My Ferrets (and For Me)

Our air conditioner is out and we're waiting for service to show up. They were supposed to "work us in" on Thursday but never showed up. This is North Carolina and we're already having summer weather. Even with everything opened up and the ceiling fans on it climbed to 82°F in the house. Even now, as of 2:27 AM, it's still 80°F indoors even though it's much cooler outside. It's also humid and I can't sleep.

Ferrets generally don't do well in temperatures over 80°F so the little weasels are probably even more uncomfortable than I am. I've made sure they have plenty of water and plenty of bedding to burrow into if they want. During playtime they seemed as happy and as active as ever at first but they ran out of energy and sacked out quickly. The few times they've had to deal with hot weather in their lives their energy level has always been way down.

It's supposed to get up to 88°F which is definitely too hot for my ferrets. If the air conditioning repair people don't show up early I'll have to make up some ice packs for the ferrets so that they can keep cool. That's pretty much all I can do until the A/C is fixed which, I hope, will be sometime during the day.

UPDATE: The A/C was fixed at 10 AM this morning. The ferrets are energizer weasels tonight and as playful as ever. What a difference a day and some cooler air makes.

Chin Soon Is Recovering Beautifully

Chin Soon is doing absolutely brilliantly. Yesterday, after a low blood glucose reading, Dr. Powers decided to discontinue her insulin. Now, more than 48 hours without insulin, Chin Soon has a blissfully normal blood glucose of 105. Her insulin producing cells in her pancreas seem to be working normally again. All her blood glucose readings over the past 48 hours have been either normal or just a bit above normal. It's all good.

Chin Soon is also regrowing hair on her belly and where her forelegs were shaved to insert a catheter. This is a sure sign that her adrenal disease is gone.

Last night Chin Soon ran the most of all the three ferrets. She wants to go a million miles an hour, something I can't let happen just yet. Her incision is healing beautifully but it's not 100% healed yet. Fortunately Chin Soon is like Pertwee in one respect: if I put her on my shoulder and walk around she is happy to take in the world from there and calms right down. Poor Ella got pounced by Chin Soon twice and didn't get to fight back and have a wrestling match because I picked Chin Soon up and put her on my shoulder.

Anyway, I'm thrilled be these results. While Dr. Powers says it's still to early to know for sure everything at this point seems to indicate a completely successful surgery and a full recovery.

New Website For My Ferrets

My ferrets web pages have been moved to their own site and my ferrets now have their own web domain. I'll be first updating the pages and then redesigning them. Right now the HTML and design is positively archaic. There will be a new look soon.

The new website is at: http://www.ferretsofdisorder.co.cc. The old pages will redirect to the new for a few days until the old domain expires. Please check it out over the next few weeks and watch the changes.

Happy Birthday Zephyr!

With all the worry and concern about Chin Soon I neglected to mention something important. The fifth anniversary of Zephyr's original rescue and first vet appointment has passed. We don't know the exact date of Zephyr's birth but just like Ella she was estimated to be one year old when she was first examined by Dr. Dan Hudson. Add one to five and you get six years old. Happy Birthday Zephyr!

Zephyr is now a geriatric ferret but you could never tell be the way she looks or acts. She's an energizer weasel who keeps going and going during playtime. OK, she didn't the last few nights but now that she knows that Chin Soon is home, alive, and well I'll be she perks up and acts like her old self again.

Chin Soon Comes Home

After four days in the hospital Chin Soon is finally stable. I brought her home Friday night. She is still on insulin. With a daily insulin injection her blood glucose does still bounce around but does come back into the normal range. What we are hoping is that her blood glucose stops spiking up because her pancreas is producing insulin again. I obviously don't want her to remain diabetic and to need insulin daily and regular blood glucose checks.

Zephyr has been a little out of sorts the last few days. She hasn't been playing or wrestling much and has been clinging to me. I think she missed Chin Soon. Now that she knows Chin Soon is OK things should get better.

I am checking Chin Soon's blood glucose every four hours (yes, including in the middle of the night), giving her frequent feedings of Bob Church's Chicken Gravy, and giving her the insulin injection. These are things I've never had to do before with any of my ferrets and are definitely things I am squeamish about and uncomfortable with. Unfortunately I don't see any other choice.

The good news is that Chin Soon is alert and is acting pretty much like her normal self. When I put her into a Midwest cage (without levels or hammocks) she immediately tried to climb out. After gravy it's supposed to be playtime, right? She still thinks so. Her incision is healing nicely. I'd just like to get her back to a nice, normal life. That's when I get back to a nice, normal life.

Between the surgery and complications, four days of hospitalization, the diabetes supplies, and her prescriptions the total cost is in excess of $1,400. It will get close to $1,500 with at least one follow-up visit to Dr. Powers I'm sure some people would read this and think that I am absolutely crazy to spend this kind of money on a ferret's medical care and to go through all this aftercare as well. Most pet owners will understand perfectly. Chin Soon is part of the family. She gets what she needs. Hopefully she'll end up healthy and happy again and will be around for a few more good years.