Category: Ferret-a-day

Meet Polgara…at last.

Short video of Gara at her first vet visit, with me and a noisy toy trying to figure out if she’s deaf or not. Months later and the jury is still partially undecided there, but we *think* she can hear…but only when it suits her.

Much overdue, but hopefully more videos in the future if this one plays properly for folks; I’ve got a new system for the videos installed that should make them compatible with playing on mobile devices, and also make it easier and faster for me to move videos from my phone to the website.

State of the Business

Well, sadly our little business is just Ares and Millie currently. We’ve caught both of them sort of looking around aimlessly over the past week, likely looking for their life partners. Ares and Draco were together for years, and Minsc was the only ferret with the energy levels anywhere near what are needed to keep up with Millie.

Also, apparently Millie is extremely smart, and we just never noticed because she was too busy harassing Minsc before. The first playtime after we lost him, she promptly escaped from the playroom and ran rampant through the house. I’m expecting to find fossilized ferret poop in the oddest place in a year or two. She might be channeling Jack-Jack and his Houdini tendencies…

So yeah, she needs a playmate. She wears Ares out, then harasses me constantly, and is usually still going strong when I’m exhausted and ready to go to bed. She’s regressed somewhat on her bite training too, so I’m having to put a lot of effort into that once more; she was doing really good for a while, but lately is getting aggressive and chompy again.

It never rains, but it pours

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…