The Texas Trio

Just over a year ago, when I was living and working in Texas, I got in touch with the Warm and Fuzzy Ferret Rescue and ended up adopting this wonderful trio of ferrets. Tata, the big boy, is somewhere around three to three and a half years old. The two girls, Izzie (standard sable in the picture) will be three in April. Liira (chocolate sable) is two and a half. They are absolutely delightful ferrets. Izzie and Liira are mostly high energy while Tata is my new Mr. Cuddle Weasel. Oh, he runs and plays like crazy too, but he's the one who climbs up on the couch and goes to sleep curled up against me.

I thought this was an ideal time to relaunch this blog and introduce the new business since tonight, once again, it was time for ferrets and figure skating. As I explained during the 2006 Olympics every four years I turn into a couch potato for two weeks and catch all the Olympic figure skating I can. It's one sport I absolutely love to watch.

When I watch the Olympics I also play with ferrets. After all, there is no reason for them to be caged if I'm in the living room, is there? Eight years ago, thanks to Nyssa, Chin Soon, Ella and Zephyr we had evenings of ice dancing and weasel war dancing. Four years later Nyssa was gone but Ella, Zephyr and Chin Soon were helping me enjoy ferrets and figure skating again. My three little weasels played and I watched skiers go "low in the weasel". Now, eight years after my original post and 12 years after my first night of ferrets and figure skating a new trio is helping me have a wonderful evening.

Yes, I miss the ferrets who have gone but with Tata, Izzie and Liira I can still enjoy my own special favorite way to spend an evening, with snow falling outside, weasels dancing and playing inside, and the beauty and grace of figure skating drastically increasing my time with the TV turned on.

Goodbye Ella, 2002-2010

Back in February my oldest ferret, Ella, went to the vet for a couple of issues which I wrote about back then. She also had an enlarged spleen for roughly three years up until then. On that
examination found that her spleen was normal size but showed some irregular edges on the ultrasound. Dr. Powers didn't seem overly concerned at the time and we didn't worry about it.

For nearly eight months since then Ella acted like a happy, healthy, affectionate and playful ferret. All seemed right with the world.

Last Saturday night Ella had a little bit of an upset tummy, was moving a bit slowly, and seemed to have some hind end weakness. My first thought was insulinoma since that was what it looked like.

By Sunday evening the diarrhea was much worse, as in almost liquid and Ella had pronounced hind end weakness. She still ate her chicken gravy greedily but had little energy after that. I debated an emergency vet visit but decided she'd probably be OK if I called her regular vet in the morning.

By Monday morning it was obvious something was terribly wrong. Ella could barely move and was incontinent. She couldn't even move from her own waste. She was shivering and cool to the touch. I decided she couldn't take the three hour drive to Huntersville to see Dr. Powers and I called a local vet and got her in there. I kept her warm as best I could and gave her some warm gravy which she ate during the first part of the 45 minute drive.

By the time we arrived at the vet Ella's breathing was labored and she barely responded at all. The vet examined her and the news was terrible: Ella had a very large tumor on her spleen which had ruptured. She was bleeding into her abdomen. We were advised us that the kindest thing we could do was to say goodbye.

Ella was originally rescued in early 2003. She was found as a stray wandering in Chapel Hill in miserable shape. Her first vet appointment was on March 19, 2003 and we always treated that as if it was her birthday. That vet (Dr. Dan Hudson, who has since retired) estimated her age at 1 year old at that time. Dr. Powers saw her later and estimated that she was half a year older than that. Her original owner passed away rather suddenly in late 2004 and we adopted her ferrets, Ella and Zephyr. Ella was somewhere around eight and a half or perhaps nine years old when she died.


This is essentially the same way we lost Romana five years ago. At the time I was away on a business trip and my housemate has long beat herself up for not getting Romana to the vet the second she saw something wrong. I've always told her it wouldn't have made a difference. Suddenly I find myself asking the same question. I raised the issue on the Ferret Health List and the consensus was that it probably wouldn't have mattered. It was Ella's time.

Goodbye, Ella Bear. You will be missed.

Low In The Weasel

Tonight is a perfect night for watching the Olympics with the ferrets. Ice dancing is on now and Zephyr was just war dancing. Tonight's men's Super G skiing coverage includes a part of the course called "the weasel". I constantly heard commentary like "he's a bit low in the weasel". Ferrets, of course, are a member of the weasel family. You can't get more of a ferret tie in to the Olympics than that.

There have been lots of crashes and falls on the ski course. In the race for the gravy Chin Soon and Ella had a big crash and the oldest ferret, Ella, just couldn't recover as quickly as Chin Soon. Chin Soon took the gold, Ella settled for the silver, and Zephyr the bronze. Skier Bode Miller also had to settle for a silver for Team USA but it was his second in as many events. Another American skier, Andrew Weibrecht, took the bronze. Certainly not a bad day for Team USA, which now has won 20 medals.

I was still a bit under the weather last night and wanted to be up to go to work today so I missed the end of the men's figure skating. I missed Evan Lysacek's gold medal performance for Team USA. I won't miss any more figure skating if at all possible.

In other ferret news Ella finished her course of medication for her eye, which seems to be back to normal. So far this has been her most active night in quite a while.

A Good Day For Ella, A Great Day For Team USA

Yesterday I was a bit under the weather. Ella, on the other hand, was having a good day. Her eye is almost completely back to normal. I also got her cytology report back from Dr. Powers.

The good news is that the masses on her spleen are benign. Quoting:

"Extramedullary hematopoiesis is a common cause for splenic enlargement in ferrets, especially older ferrets. The cause for this process has not been determined, but it may be associated with antigenic stimulation from the gut, endocrine or metabolic derangements, aging, or combinations thereof."

Dr. Powers' translation is that these are two spots where the spleen is producing extra red blood cells. Aging as a cause? Older ferrets? That sounds like Ella. We've known she's had an enlarged spleen for a few years.

The results on the enlarged subiliac lymph nodes were inconclusive. As Dr. Powers explained previously this could be caused by a chronic GI disease. It also...

"could possibly represent early stages of small cell lymphoma, the most common variant of lymphoma in old ferrets."

In other words we still don't know the cause. I still need to talk to Dr. Powers to decide how to proceed from here. In the meanwhile Ella hasn't had diarrhea in a week and is putting on weight. She hasn't been quite as active as she normally is but all in all she seems to be doing OK.

Tonight was better. In the race to the chicken gravy Ella took the gold, edging out Chin Soon in the run from the cage door to her favorite treat at the entrance to the kitchen. Not too bad for an old, blind ferret who is supposed to be past her prime.

So... last night we watched skiing and speed skating on a day when Americans won six medals. The women's downhill included some horrendous crashes. It also saw Lindsey Vonn take the gold medal and Julia Mancuso win the silver, the first time U.S. women finished 1-2 since 1984. I also saw Shani Davis take the gold medal in men's 1,000 meter speed skating while Chad Hedrick took the bronze. It was the best day ever for Team USA in the Winter Olympics.

Tonight it's skiing again, and lots of playing with some bouncy little weasels. Add a little figure skating and it sounds like fun to me. I just wish I could be in Vancouver seeing it live.

Ella, Zephyr and Chin Soon Vet Visit Update -- Good News and Bad

The ferrets and I made the long trip to Carolina Veterinary Specialists in Huntersville yesterday to see. Dr. Lauren Powers. Ella actually has two distinct medical problems. The right eye has an ulcer which has been causing her considerable pain. She is now on both topical and oral antibiotics: one drop of Ofloxacin 0.3% in the injured eye 3-4 times daily and 0.4 ml enrofloxacin. We also have pain meds for her for the next 3-4 days as needed until the eye heals a bit.

The good news here is that after just one day with medication Ella's eye is already improving. Yesterday morning Ella was holding the eye tightly closed and was in obvious pain. She's not holding it closed tonight and is having a nice, normal active evening despite the pain meds. She actually seems far less uncomfortable tonight and was acting more like her normal self.

The ultrasound showed two nodules on Ella's spleen and what Dr. Powers thinks are enlarged illiac lymph nodes. We decided to put Ella under and do aspirates on all three masses. They were sent off for cytology and we should get results by the end of the week. Dr. Powers is still worried about the possibility of lymphoma. The peripheral lymph nodes are not enlarged and the she did say that other things can cause enlarged illiac lymph nodes including IBD and other chronic GI disease. Once we have Ella's lab results back we'll decide how to proceed.

Dr. Powers did check Ella's blood glucose again (was 77 last time) and it was a nice, normal 98. She does not have insulinoma.

I'll post more when the cytology report comes back. Obviously I'm hoping that the masses are benign and that Ella doesn't have lymphoma. FWIW, Ella did have diarrhea this morning but her output was normal later in the day.

The news for Zephyr was also mixed. The good news is that she hasn't actually lost weight. Zephyr has blown her coat at an odd time. What we are seeing is far less hair, not less ferret. The bad news is that her vulva is a bit swollen and that the hair on her belly is thin. We're going to watch and wait and see how symptoms develop. Right now this is looking an awful lot like adrenal disease which would be bad news. At age seven I don't know if we'd do surgery or not. Seeing how Zephyr responds to Lupron is probably the first option if the symptoms of adrenal disease become clear.

Chin Soon's gums are healing. She still has some root exposure but there is definite improvement. Dr. Powers said we should keep doing what we're doing, meaning brushing her teeth regularly, and we'll see how things go over the next two months. Chin Soon's blood glucose was also rechecked and was a nice, normal 91. For Chin Soon yesterday's recheck was all good news.

The cost of all this was almost $700, and almost all of that cost was Ella's diagnostic work. Whatever Ella's diagnosis ends up being we're not done yet.

Ella May Be In Trouble, Zephyr Losing Weight

Due to the winter storm last week the vet appointment for Ella was put off until tomorrow morning. In the meanwhile, over the last couple of days, Ella has become very obviously ill. She can barely open her right eye at all and both eyes are watery. She's also had two serious bouts of diarrhea over the last five days with normal output in between. Ella has also always really loved rough play. The last two nights she's come to me to play with her as always. When she does, though, if I touch her belly much she vocalizes discomfort and play ends. That, combined with her blood test results from January 18th, especially her elevated globulin, have Dr. Powers thinking that Ella may have intestinal lymphoma. That would be truly horrible news.

Dr. Powers will call me back later today with, in her words, "lots of questions" when she's done with her current patient. She doesn't feel like coming in this evening instead of tomorrow morning will make a difference, so for now the plan is to keep tomorrow's scheduled appointment and do more diagnostic work to determine for certain what is wrong with Ella.

In the meanwhile Ella ran around and explored like always last night, is eating and drinking normally, and has plenty of energy so I am hoping against hope for better news when the tests are done.

I am also very concerned about Zephyr who has lost a lot of weight in a very short period of time and also has had on again, off again diarrhea. Like Ella there has been no drop off in Zephyr's activity level and her appetite is just fine. Like Ella she isn't bouncing as much and is avoiding rough play.

Whenever one of the other ferrets is sick Chin Soon tends to stick to them like glue. I saw this with a then eight year old Nyssa during the final month or two of her life. Chin Soon was Nyssa's constant companion then and would curl up and sleep with her. Chin Soon is doing that with Zephyr now which also worries me.

Ella is just two week short of the seventh anniversary of her rescue so she is right around eight years old. Zephyr is six weeks away from the sixth anniversary of her rescue and is roughly seven. Both are considered old in ferret terms. I'm still not ready to lose either one of them.

I'll post more when I know more.

Ella and Chin Soon's Latest Vet Visit

The ferrets and I took a trip to see Dr. Lauren Powers at Carolina Veterinary Specialists in Huntersville a week ago Monday. No, nothing was wrong with any of the ferrets as far as I could tell. They have all seemed blissfully healthy. At their last visit Dr. Powers commented that Chin Soon really needed her teeth scaled. Ella is also somewhere close to eight years old if she's not there already and it's advisable to have checkups and blood work done twice a year for geriatric ferrets. Zephyr came along for the ride since I thought that would be better for her than staying alone in a cage all day.

The good news for Chin Soon is that her fasting blood glucose was a nice, normal 96. This is great news nine months after insulinoma surgery. She also now has nice, clean teeth. The bad news is that her rear teeth have root exposure and pockets which could become infected. The recommendation is that she have those teeth extracted. For right now we're starting antibiotics. I really, really trust Dr. Powers but I was pretty surprised (OK, shocked) by this recommendation. I need to look into it more before allowing her to do something like this to Chin Soon. I know that for human dental care preserving the teeth and doing everything possible to avoid losing them is paramount.

I discussed my concerns with Dr. Powers and her suggested course of action made sense to me. We'll continue brushing Chin Soon's teeth weekly with her Dora the Explorer toothbrush and see if there is any improvement now that the tartar has been removed from her teeth and with antibiotics. If not we'll have to go ahead with the extraction in the next couple of months. If she improves then we can avoid that.

Ella's weight is down about 100 grams over the past seven months but otherwise Dr. Powers says she's in great physical shape. Pending blood work coming back normal she got a clean bill of health. Based on her initial exam it seemed that Ella is in fantastic shape for an eight year old ferret. It's also been more than five years since Dr. Powers did her adrenal surgery and there is still no sign of recurrence or really any health problems at all. Ella does have some tartar on her teeth so we're going to start brushing hers as well. The plan was to her teeth cleaned when we bring Chin Soon in again but that is now on hold.

Later that evening we got a call with results from Ella's bloodwork. Unfortunately a few values were off, including a blood glucose of 77. Because of the other blood values Dr. Powers and her new intern (who's name escapes me at the moment) are thinking some sort of infection or inflammation. We're taking her back to Huntersville for more diagnostic work next week: abdominal ultrasound and urinalysis. Hopefully that will tell us what's going on.

This was a bit of a surprise because Ella showed no symptoms whatsoever of illness. She plays just like always, has a great appetite and absolutely normal output. I guess I just got a great example of why vets do recommend checkups and bloodwork every six months on the old guys to catch things and treat them before they become serious. Some of the possibilities listed are easily treated with medication while others are more serious. Here's hoping it's one of the easily treatable things.

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.

Ella is 7!

A little over six years ago a stray ferret was found in Chapel Hill in poor condition. The average lifespan of a ferret that is turned loose or strays away from home is three days. You don't usually find stray ferrets, at least not alive. That ferret was picked up by a wonderful local ferret owner, Celia Wright, who named her Ella. Six years ago last Wednesday Ella went to the vet for the first time immediately after the rescue. The vet was Dr. Dan Hudson, our original vet (now retired) estimated her age at one year old. She was an adult ferret so she couldn't have been much younger than that. She could have been a little older but probably not much.

Sadly Celia passed away and I adopted her two ferrets, Ella and Zephyr, more than four years ago. We'll never know Ella's exact birthday but we've used that first vet visit and added the one year estimate to calculate her age. By that measure Ella turned seven this past week. Happy Birthday Ella!

While she's taking a snooze in the picture above Ella remains a very playful and active ferret. Oh, she's old by ferret standards but she doesn't act that way. This is despite the fact that she is blind now. She lost her eyesight gradually and adjusted brilliantly. She can run down the hall and make a turn into the living room at full speed and not run into anything. She knows exactly where things are supposed to be. We do rearrange the tunnels and toys (she likes exploring and finding where things are) but we also leave large areas where she can run to her hearts content without fear of bumping into anything. Sometimes she does go bump but she rarely misjudges. Ella also knows exactly where to find her gravy at the beginning of playtime and runs out of the cage and to the bowl and maximum speed.

We leave a three story ferret condo at the edge of the couch which she climbs, either on the inside or the outside, to get up on the furniture. We don't dare move that. We also always have one of her two favorite blankets where Ella likes to sleep. Other than that she gets around by sense of smell. She also comes when called so her hearing is fine.

Ella also still loves rough play. Tonight she did sock drags: literally hanging onto my sock with my foot in it while I drag her around. She also grabbed onto my thumb with both forepaws and her teeth (without biting down at all) and I literally lifted her off the couch by one thumb. She's strong and can hang on for quite some time if she wants to. Ella shows no real signs of slowing down at all, a good indication that she's still healthy. The only other health issue I am aware of is an enlarged spleen, something that's common in older ferrets. It doesn't seem to bother her at all.

I've had some seventh ferret birthdays that were bittersweet due to deteriorating health and I've had some ferrets where it was all joy. Ella's seventh (whichever day it really was or is or will be) is a happy occasion.

Chin Soon Update: Insulinoma and Adrenal Disease

Last Tuesday I made the three hour drive to get Chin Soon to a vet I really trust: Dr. Lauren Powers at Carolina Veterinary Specialists in Huntersville.

During the entire time I've been in North Carolina and have owned ferrets Dr. Powers has always been our backup vet, the one Dr. Hudson would send us to when he wanted a second opinion or the one we went to when there was an emergency and a local vet simply wasn't available. She's an outstanding vet with a fantastic reputation in the ferret community but she is just plain far from home. The net result is that she always sees our ferrets when they are on death's door. OK, Pertwee lived for another four years after his visit with Dr. Powers but he wasn't expected to. It was nice, for once, to have Dr. Powers see a ferret she actually could treat. I guess I should point out that Dr. Powers did Ella's entirely successful adrenal surgery more than four years ago. That was a couple of months before I adopted Ella.

Dr. Powers confirmed what I pretty much knew: in addition to insulinoma Chin Soon has adrenal disease. Her nipples are enlarged and her hair loss is starting to look like a classic adrenal pattern. Dr. Powers also said something that Dr. Hudson said to me whenever I caught adrenal disease early: surgery will have to wait a little to make sure that it's clear which adrenal gland is enlarged. The disease has to progress far enough for the surgeon, in this case Dr. Powers, to actually be able to see that one gland is really bigger than the other. Chin Soon is looking at a combined adrenal and insulinoma surgery, essentially the same surgery Lady Ayeka had back in 2004, at a cost of around $900.

Dr. Powers also rechecked Chin Soon's blood glucose. Despite obvious clinical improvement from the pediapred it was still very low: 44. The pediapred dosage was increased to .18ml (5mg/5ml concentation), still less than a fifth of what the nightmare vet wanted to prescribe. Dr. Powers also started Chin Soon on 100mcg of Lupron (the one month depot) to relieve her adrenal symptoms. Lupron worked very well for Podo when his adrenal disease recurred late in his life.

Chin Soon also gained 110 grams in just a week, a side effect of the pediapred. The fact that she is voraciously eating Bob Church's Chicken Gravy twice a day when she gets her medication is almost certainly also contributing. She had actually lost weight this winter due to her illnesses so this weight gain is a good thing.

While the expense of surgery is going to be difficult to meet in the current economic climate at least I know Chin Soon can be treated and is being cared for by a great vet. As I noted in my last post Chin Soon is definitely feeling much better. The net result is that she's bouncing and war dancing and wrestling more. When she plays more Ella and Zephyr get excited and play with her. Things are better all around.

Pressure Cooker On The Stove For Bob Church's Chicken Gravy

Next week will be five and a half years since Ella's first vet visit after Celia Wright rescued her. At that time the vet guesstimated her age to be one year old. Yep, she's definitely a senior ferret now.

Let's assume that guess on her age was spot on. Ella was an adult ferret at the time so she couldn't be much younger. She's also a Marshall Farms ferret. I've had ferrets live to be up to 10 years old but I've never had a Marshall's see their seventh birthday. Whether that's just plain bad luck or something about the way the country's largest ferret breeder raises their kits is an open question.

I'm also certainly more knowledgeable about ferret health and nutrition than I once was. I'd like to believe I can keep my current ferrets, all of whom were bred by Marshall Farms, healthy and happy a bit longer simply by doing preventative things and giving them the best possible food.

I've mentioned Bob Church's Chicken Gravy before as something I give ailing and recovering ferrets. I've also mentioned Pam Sessoms' Pressure Cooker Method as the easiest way to make it. A number of ferret owners in the area, including Pam, do give gravy in limited quantities to their healthy ferrets each day. Pam did this for both Ella and Zephyr in the time she took care of them after Celia Wright became ill and before I adopted them. Since they already had the gravy habit I kept it going.

Here we are, nearly four years later, and all three ferrets have been happy and healthy pretty much the whole time. Ella has had no recurrence of adrenal disease in nearly four years and neither Zephyr nor Chin Soon has had any serious health problems as of yet. Does feeding them a little gravy every day in addition to kibble help? A lot of ferret owners and some vets seem to think so. It's certainly worth the extra bit of work every month or two to make it for them.

I know one thing for certain: I'd like to see these three Marshall Farms bred ferrets all have seventh birthdays. I'd like them to be happy and healthy at eight and nine too.

Anniversaries

It's the time of year for anniversaries. Last month was three years since Ella (asleep, above) and Zephyr were brought to my home. They've been absolutely wonderful additions to my household ever since. Earlier this month was five years since Ella was first rescued by Celia Wright, their late previous owner. Ella was estimated to be one year old at the time by a very knowledgeable vet. That means her sixth birthday has probably come and gone too and she is now a senior ferret. Thankfully she remains happy and healthy so far. Next week will be four years since Zephyr was rescued. She, too, was estimated to be a year old. That means she's probably right around five years old.

How time flies...


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