Sad Day

Today we took Cauliflower to Dr. Ned's to put him to sleep. It is a sad day. It had looked like he was beginning to feel a little better. I had started giving him Carafate, which improved his appetite (when your stomach doesn't hurt, you can eat more). Just yesterday evening, Cauli ate two big syringes-full of food. He went right to it, and lapped it up eagerly. But a few hours after that, he refused to eat. He even pulled away from Ferretone. We tried to put some food into his mouth, but he wouldn't swallow it. He let it dribble out the sides of his mouth. We managed to get some vanilla Boost into him -- barely.

This morning, he was, for the most part, nonresponsive. We knew it was the day. He had pooped on his little blanket. I cleaned him up a bit, and Eric called the vet. We then took turns petting him and holding him while the other took a shower.

I held Cauli on my lap for the ride to the vet -- about 40 minutes. His breathing was becoming labored and his belly was beginning to distend. It was obvious that something had "broken" inside him. We were doing the right thing for him.

When we got to the vet's, we each said good-bye again. Cauli went quickly once he was given the medication. He's now at peace.

--Mary

Update

Eric's been home for a week now and he's still very tired. He can only do work for an hour or so before he needs to go back to sleep. I'm checking with his doc to make sure this is OK.

Cauliflower will likely come home today or tomorrow, depending on how I'm feeling. He's improved and is stable now. He eats on his own and makes beautiful poops (only a ferret person could understand the excitement of beautiful poops!). But he's been getting dehydrated nonetheless, and they've been giving him subcutaneous fluids. I've done SC fluids on ferrets before, but Cauli is a challenge even for the vet techs. I'm hoping that when he gets home, he'll improve a bit -- drink more on his own. We'll see.

Once Eric is done with the antibiotics and gets the all-clear on the infection, he'll get a Remicade treatment. Remicade is an anti-tumor necrosis factor monoclonal antibody (try saying that three times fast!). The pertinent part is that Remicade can heal fistulas (holes) in the intestine. I don't know for certain when this will happen, but I hope it's sometime in the next two weeks. He should start feeling a little better a few days after his first treatment.

That's about it for now.