what happened...

Bal had been getting brief bouts of diarrhea for a couple of years. We never found anything wrong with him, so when he started again a couple of weeks ago, we treated it the same as before: kaopectate and prednisone (he used to get kaopectate for three days & it would all clear up -- in retrospect, the bouts probably did get worse as time went on -- but he always bounced back quickly and completely). He perked right up and was feeling and acting like his usual self. Even on Sunday, he was hopping up on the couches and dancing and generally behaving like a well ferret. He had not lost weight or muscle. So when he seemed to feel less good on Tuesday, we figured it's time to go to the vet. They couldn't take an x-ray on Tues because his temp was 104. On Wed AM they took bloods and did the x-ray. There was a definite thing in Bal's belly. They were going to do an exploratory yesterday, after the bloodwork came back -- if the bloodwork was OK. It wasn't. His kidney values were sky high. He was lethargic. They were going to give him fluids for another day and see if he improved, because as he was, he wouldn't make it through surgery. Eric and I were getting ready to go visit him. I grabbed a dirty t-shirt for Bal, so he'd have my smell with him. But before we got out the door, Dr. Ned called and said that Bal had died. We went to see him anyway. I just can't believe he's gone. Even in death, he looked good -- he had muscle and fat and his fur was soft. The part that hurts the most is that I didn't get to say goodbye to him. He was very special to me -- he would come to me when he felt bad or when he was scared. He'd sit on my lap even if he was full of energy.


Dr. Ned did a necropsy and found numerous ulcers in Bal's stomach and intestines. Bal had never had any signs of blood in his stools. But apparently one of the ulcers went clean through. His lymph nodes were enlarged, too. Dr. Ned sent various tissue samples out for biopsy. We'll see what comes back. I know we did things the best we could, but I feel like I should have been able to do more. I guess we all feel that way a little when one of our babies dies.

Balthazar

Balthazar

--Mary

Balthazar died today. Dr. Ned is doing a necropsy. We should have some answers later today. My heart is broken.

--Mary

Balthazar

Balthazar is at the vet's. He was doing well on the prednisone for a while, so I decided to try to wean him off of it. Yesterday morning he was sick again -- diarrhea, lethargic, obviously having belly pain. We had to leave him at the vet's because they were very busy. His temperature was 104, so they didn't want to knock him out for an x-ray yesterday. This morning, his temperature is low (98 point something). They did the x-ray and saw some kind of thing, whether it's a mass or a foreign body, they can't tell. They pulled blood this morning and should have it back tomorrow. If Bal's bloodwork is ok, he'll have exploratory surgery tomorrow. It's times like this that I wish we lived closer to our vet. I know Bal is feeling crummy and I wish I could just stay there with him all day. But we might be getting a big delivery of books today, so I might not have a chance to drive out and see him. It's not that I'm worried about him coming through OK. He's got plenty of weight on him and he's not really old (he's a tad over 5 years). It's just that he's my baby, and I want to be there with him so he's not scared.


I'll keep you posted on his progress.

--Mary

Happy Labor Day!

Of course, I'm working today. Figures.


The big news item (or one of them) is at http://www.AskTheFerret.com -- go take a look! Make sure you check out the "Magic 8" Ferret.


Another big news item is...

We're Moving!

That's right. After all the hardships that have befallen us here, we are moving to a less expensive place to live. Of course, less expensive means smaller. That means that we have to sell off A LOT of back issues of the magazine and books. We will be having a moving sale on Take 25 Packs and combination package deals. Join the e-mail newsletter to find out when and what they are. (Go to http://www.FerretNews.com to join the newsletter.)


When we're in our new place and have all the video stuff set up again, we'll be updating the Ferret TV website with a blow-by-blow video of how a lowly (but huge) garage was transformed into a shiny new "carriage house." Right now only some of the walls are up and there's still a long way to go. The beauty of it is that we'll be able to make the place ferret-proof from the very start.

Eric, The Ferrets, & Me

We're all doing OK here. Eric is mostly feeling better. Balthazar is doing well (he'd been having a flare-up/bout of what we believe to be inflammatory bowel disease). I'm weaning him off prednisone and he's feeling OK. I think my medication has a few more fine tunings before I'm back to normal (whatever that is).

Geocaching

Some of you might know about a little "sport" (hobby?) called geocaching (see the website at: http://www.geocaching.com). Basically, some people create these little stashes of trinkets and such and then offer up coordinates for them on the web. Other people use GPSs to locate the stashes. Then they trade out a trinket or two for something of theirs and they log it into a little book that stays at the cache site. At least that's my limited understanding of it. It's a kind of geeky thing, but it's also kind of neat.


Our friend Melissa is just getting involved with geocaching. She came to visit us for a few days last week, and one of the things we did was locate a geocache. It was actually a lot of fun. We checked on the web for a cache that was nearby (within a 5-mile radius, actually). The one we decided to look for was perfect for us! It was a travelling cache (that means, when you find it, you move it to a new cache site). Of all things, it was a little action figure of Captain Picard as the Borg Locutus! (OK, so I like Star Trek. Like you don't.) Melissa and I walked and walked and finally found the cache site. It was along a path in a nature-walk woods in Smithtown (near us), by the bull (read on to learn about the bull). We were very excited to find little Locutus and the three army men who were travelling with him. Melissa will be putting him in a new place shortly. Locutus had started out in Texas (if I remember correctly) and had travelled to Massachusetts and some other places. He's trying to get to Nevada. Hopefully he'll make it. I know, he's a little plastic action figure, but that's not the point. The point is that we had fun and got some good exercise getting him out of the cache.


Now. About the bull. My history is rusty, but here goes: A Native American chief told [I can't remember his first name] Smith that he could have all the land that he could circumnavigate in a day riding on a bull. The land that Smith rode around is now Smithtown. There's a road on the edge of Smithtown (by Fort Salonga) called Bread and Cheese Hollow Road, which was named that because Smith had a lunch of bread and cheese at that spot. Anyway, when you enter Smithtown from the west end, there's a life-size (or larger) statue of a bull. It's been there for ages.

The Magazine Mailing

Several people have e-mailed me concerned because they haven't gotten their copy of the new issue yet. Please, be patient. Modern Ferret mails by standard (bulk) mail and can take up to 4 weeks to reach everyone. If you haven't gotten your issue by September 16 or so (keep in mind that the Labor Day holiday will slow down the mail), let me know and I can send a replacement. OK? Thanks.


That's about all I have to say now. I have to get back to work. I'll try to write again soon.


--Mary