Buy Some Great Music and Help Tata Get Surgery Sooner

Tata, my oldest ferret, has adrenal disease which has been under control thanks to a deslorelin implant. He also now has insulinoma, and attempts to control that medically haven't worked very well. His last blood glucose was only 52. He's scheduled to see the vet again on Friday.

The recommendation as of his last visit by two vets in the practice is to have surgery, preferably sooner rather than later. Unfortunately my business has been incredibly slow lately and I can't afford it just yet. Over the past 31 years I've gradually built a very large music collection on CD. I've decided to sell off as much as I can to fund his surgery, both on Discogs and on eBay. I'm not asking for charity. I am asking that if you're one of those people who still like a physical copy of albums you like that you take a look to see if there is anything you want. I also have items listed where the CD would be cheaper than a legal download from iTunes, Amazon, etc... If you get a CD you can rip the music to mp3 yourself and have the original copy as a backup.

I have over 300 items listed on Discogs and that number will be increasing in the coming days. You can sort by clicking on Artist, Title, Price, etc... Prices range from a couple of dollars to some rather expensive, collectible items. I try to be very competitive in all my pricing. Discogs is better for me than eBay because commissions are lower so more money ends up in my pocket. If you don't have a Discogs account you can sign in with a Facebook account instead. If you don't have a PayPal account I don't believe you need one -- they'll take a credit card.

So.. please, take a look, and if you don't find something you like now check back in few days. I offer free shipping on multi-CD orders of a certain value depending on which country you're in, so please check my terms as well.

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps me help Tata this way.

The End For My Carolina Ferrets

It's been a long time since I posted. I lost Zephyr to third degree A/V node heart block last summer. She was nine years old, which is a very good age for a ferret. She lived with the heart condition for just about eight months thanks to the fantastic work of Dr. Lauren Powers at Carolina Veterinary Specialists. She came up with an experimental medication regimen that kept Zephyr going, albeit slowly. According to everything I've read that is a very good result for a ferret with that condition.

As Zephyr slowed down so did Chin Soon. It became apparent by May or June that she wasn't well either. It turned out she had lymphoma, the number one killer of my ferrets over the years. Once Zephyr passed away the life seemed to go out of Chin Soon, who was suddenly a solo ferret after having companions for the previous eight years. I tried giving her all the attention I could and she was still affectionate but never was energetic again. The change in her was just heartbreaking. Sadly, with her illness I knew it was the wrong time to introduce a younger ferret. Also, by that time it was clear I'd be moving. I already had a job offer for my present position pending a series of background checks and I was expecting two other offers. Adding ferrets at that point made no sense.

Chin Soon lasted just a few weeks after Zephyr passed away. Fluid began to build up in her abdomen, just as it had in Kodo's during the last days of his life. I ended up taking her to the emergency vet in Raleigh who told me what I pretty much already knew: her time had come. Chin Soon was nine years old when I let her go.

Both Zephyr and Chin Soon are now buried next to Ella and their other companions over their years with me. I was fortunate enough to have more than seven years with Zephyr and more than eight years with Chin Soon. I miss them. When I moved to Texas last September I was without ferrets for the first time in 14+ years.

Five Straight for Zephyr

Zephyr had her fifth straight normal blood glucose reading :) She still slides a bit on the hardwoods and still startles easily but otherwise she's doing great. Dr. Powers does great work. Considering Zephyr's age I consider myself very, very fortunate to have her getting back to normal.

Zephyr is Recovering Beautifully

Zephyr, my ferret who had insulinoma surgery yesterday, is making a beautiful recovery so far.  She began eating kibble on her own last night in addition to her gravy and did a very professional job of emptying the food bowl and water bottle.  She has diarrhea but otherwise is eliminating normally.

Zephyr's blood glucose was 269 last night.   Post-surgical diabetes was expected and Dr. Powers called that number borderline but not of enough concern to have to bring her back just yet. This morning my glucometer gave an error and by the time I was ready to try again with another strip I had to prick her tail again.  The problem was she had already just about finished her chicken gravy.  We scruffed her to try that way and the little monster repeatedly broke the scruff.  That's how strong and feisty she is this morning.  I'll give her more gravy in a couple of hours and that should let me try again.

Right now we are weening her from prednisolone, giving her tramadol every 12 hours for pain, and a sliver of Pepcid AC in her gravy to avoid ulcers.

I was told that Chin Soon was really agitated when Zephyr wasn't around last night.  We let them briefly sniff each other through cage bars last night and put the recovery cage next to the main cage so that the two would know the other is there and is OK. That isn't good enough for Chin Soon, who frantically circled the recovery cage this morning looking for a way in and then repeatedly dumped her food bowl and deliberately missed the litter pan in protest.  The next week, while the two have to be separated, is going to be challenging.

All in all, I'm thrilled with how well Zephyr is recovering.

Zephyr: Insulinoma Surgery

Zephyr is now approximately 7½ years old. She was diagnosed with insulinoma before the holidays and has been on prednisolone which did absolutely nothing for her. She had a seizure last week and continued to have severe symptoms. Her blood glucose as of this morning was 36.

Dr. Lauren Powers at Carolina Veterinary Specialists performed insulinoma surgery on Zephyr this morning. This is the third time I've had insulinoma surgery on a ferret Zephyr's age or older and, in all three cases, either Dr. Dan Hudson, Dr. Holly Weston and now Dr. Powers believed it was the only treatment option left.

The good news is that Zephyr came through surgery just fine and is awake. Two very large nodules were removed from Zephyr's pancreas. While nothing was sent off for pathology yet Dr. Powers believes the really huge one is a carcinoma. Dr. Powers also found a small, smooth, round nodule on Zephyr's spleen which she aspirated. She believes it will prove to be benign and did not want to remove the spleen unless it was absolutely necessary so it stayed in. Everything else looked normal, including both adrenal glands and Zephyr's lymph nodes.

I'm never comfortable with surgery on a ferret Zephyr's age but sometimes it is the only good option. When Kodo and Podo had their insulinoma surgeries their quality of life improved dramatically and they lived for roughly two more years. I'm hoping we've bought that much time for Zephyr too.

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.

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.

Four Years Later It's Ferrets and Figure Skating Again

Four years ago I wrote about watching the Winter Olympics and playing with my ferrets. This year I actually received an e-mail from the U.S. Olympic Committee which asked me if I'd be willing to blog about Team USA here on the ferrets' blog again this year. They actually noticed my three posts four years ago. Amazing! Anyway, I won't disappoint them.

Three of the four ferrets who were there for the Olympics in 2006 are back. Nyssa, of course, lost her battle with lymphoma at the ripe old age of eight in July, 2006. Ella, Zephyr and Chin Soon are now all older ferrets but don't tell them that when they are in high energy play mode.

So, will Chin Soon take the gold again as my non-stop weasel? So far, no, that honor goes to the always playful Zephyr. As I wrote four years ago Zephyr and all the ferrets love the Olympics because while I watch they are free to run around and during long commercial breaks they get lots of attention. Oh, and yeah, I love the Winter Olympics too. I went to the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid and I've been addicted to the quadrennial games ever since.

What about Team USA? Skaters Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig turned in a beautiful performance this evening in the pairs short program. They aren't expected to contend for a medal but their skating was still fantastic to watch.

Ella's eye seems to be improving slowly. Earlier it was fully open but at medication time this evening it didn't look too good. I hope to have results from her lab work in the next day or two. Zephyr seems fine. She's growing a summer coat in midwinter. Her seasons have always been way off and she's been healthy all her life. Anything resembling adrenal symptoms have disappeared, at least for now.

Anyway, I'll be blogging about Olympic ferret playtime again over the next two weeks. I can't disappoint the USOC, can I?

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.

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.

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.