Jun 052013
 

Rushed to the emergency vet again last night…Minsc was extremely listless, unresponsive to most stimuli, and had a really low body temperature.

He’s warmed up now and they’re watching him closely. Doing an ultrasound and getting some samples…he’s got fluid in his abdomen, which is not a good sign. We’ll know more when they finish the testing.

Update, 1pm

The ultrasound, with mild sedation to keep him still, revealed that Minsc has an enormous mass on his liver. Its large enough that it is displacing his gall bladder and pressing on other organs. He also has from freestanding blood in his abdominal cavity. The liver mass has a very high index of being a hemangiosarcoma, a rapidly growing, invasive cancer of the blood vessel linings. In essence, it is a time-bomb that could rupture and kill him at any moment. And they tend to be inoperable, but the only way to know for sure is to attempt surgery. He also has a heart murmur, and his body temperature is still extremely low when they don’t keep him in the incubator. I don’t know that he could even survive surgery, so we don’t think it’s the right choice in this case.

We’re driving up shortly to say goodbye. It’s just not fair…

Dec 142012
 

Got a message today, that our ferret matriarch, Nyx, had passed away. She’d been having some issues with adrenal gland tumors, and as it turns out, had some other cancer issues as well.

Nyx was the ferret that started it all, the original one of the business we’ve built up over time. My cousins got her, and I found out that my allergies weren’t bothered by ferrets like they were with many other animals…so we got Minion. Then we got JJ and Ys. Then they got Bandit and Ares and Draco. And it just sort of inflated from there, as ferrets tend to do. She lived a long, fun-filled life, in which she got to interact with a dozen different ferrets, and many loving humans. It’s hard to think of a better life for a ferret, except to have it be even longer.

Nyx with adrenal hair loss

Nyx with adrenal hair loss

Sleepy Nyx

Sleepy Nyx

Now Jack-Jack and Ys have one of their original playmates back again. Play on, fur-kids!