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UPDATE: JULY 26: Old Man Weezie is doing great. His hair is finally growing back on his tummy. But Doctor Krupka cannot believe that he is ALIVE let alone walking.
He will be on Lupron forever, but he has a chance to be spoiled rotten now. He feels so much better now. He even gives kisses, but when he gets annoyed with you he will give a quick little nip to say, enough, put me down I want to play.
He is awsome. He is alive, and thriving.
UPDATE, Saturday, July 1: Weezie is so amazing. After all he has been through. I finally relented and let him out of the cage for awhile.
He walked around sniffing everything for about 45 minutes. Very gingerly I might add. After his exploring was finished he crawled into a blanket, so I put him into his cage.
His appetite is great, and has shown absolutely no symptoms of insluinoma.
He gives kisses.
UPDATE, SUNDAY, JUNE 25: He is trying to use his legs. Not doing very well, but he is trying. So far his limbs have been staying warm, which means the blood is circulating.
He isn't out of the woods yet. Doctor Krupka thinks that if he can make it at least four days that meant the vein is holding and performing like it should.
I won't be less worried until a good week past his surgery. He is being kept fairly quiet, and in a small area so he doesn't damage himself while healing. He has been out in the play pen a few times today, he has curiosity, but is still too worn out to really try to get into anything. He waddles and stumbles and sniffs a few places and goes to sleep.
UPDATE TWO: So far so good, the inferior vena cava is holding. He hates me playing with his feet (checking to make sure they are warm). He still is weak, but eats soupy food every time I offer it to him. I have even caught him munching on hard food.
He scared the crap out of me this morning. He crawled into the litter box (what a good boy) to go patty, and fell asleep hanging out of the box.
Dr, Krupka has already called to make sure things are ok, and says "You have my cell number, I'm around call if you need me." What a great vet, he is off, and should be spending time with his family, but makes time to call and check on his patients, and will be there if we need him.
If Weezi survives, he will be a permanent shelter kid, we didn't get the right adrenal out, too involved in the vena cava. He will be on Lupron for the rest of his life.
Lots of prayers for this little boy please, he needs to survive and be the poster child of miracles.
UPDATE: Well Weezie gave doc a run for his money today. Not only did he have a huge spleen with nodules on it, he had a huge cyst attached to the liver and the vena cava.
Doctor Krupka got the spleen out, and went to remove the cyst, and the inferior vena cave just disintegrated (it brings the blood that is out of oxygen back to the heart from the rear legs). He got it "put back together."
This is a major concern. If he doesn't use his rear legs and they get cold, that means there is no blood circulation. It is getting to the legs, but isn't getting back to the heart. If this happens,
Weezi is an old (7+) ferret from the City of Fairlawn Nature and Parks Department (LRC. I believe - now you guys really didn't think I was going to let this one go did you?)
I got a call, the City of Fairlawn wants to donate a ferret to the shelter. Their education ferret. He is 7 or more give or take, he was just diagnosed with reverse diabetes, has a large hard spleen. The vet said the surgery would only buy him 6 or 8 months. We don't have the money in the budget to do it. We take him to XYZ vet. According to the person I spoke with they used him for education for 5 years.
Ok, this really hit me straight in the face. I reply, but you guys get funding and can get donations. With today's surgeries my vet bill is about $2000. You don't have the money? Where am I going to get it? NOw you have to understaned, these are the facts as they were presented to me.
Well, he can stay here, he won't get the surgery, and he won't be used in the programs any more. He'll just be in his cage here.
Ok, I'll take him, at least here he will get attention and playtime, and whatever my vet, Dr. Krupka thinks is best for him, we'll do, and if it is surgery, I'll find some way to pull the money out of ......... I am doing the XYZ event tomorrow. I need all his vet records from Dr. So in So.
Ok. We'll send his cage too, and his meds.
So I get brought this boy, in a cage, with his meds, and was being fed BILL JACK frozen DOG FOOD!!! "Oh Dr. So in SO said it was ok to feed him that." Sorry, that vet knows ferrets, and I know he knows better than to say that, especially THAT food. All the other foods give him the runs.
He is on the shelter mix, and there is NO Bill Jack in it and I have NO runny poop!!
So Monday, off to the vet. HUGE spleen, funny, they didn't say a thing about the mass cell either, some dental issues. Doc had the girls call to get Weezi's files from Dr. So in SO. Guess what??
The first time they saw Weezie was May 2 at 9:30 AM for shots, the first time this ferret is seen by this vet. The second time was when he had an insulinomic episode. I have copies of all the paper work from the vet, and it is only those two visits. They saw him twice. They found the flyer about the shelter's brick fundraiser and saw a way out.
Which means, no shots, no canine distemper shot, no rabies shot BEFORE May 2. So for four years he had no shots. (by the way folks, in your county RABIES is REQUIRED BY LAW and has been for a LONG time). Nothing. So they were doing education with him, not knowing the first thing about what is required.
I will NEVER EVER place a ferret in an education program with anyone. Zoo, Nature Center, none of them. I did twice, two different zoos, one lied. And now I have this, nope no more never ever (no they did not get him from here)
Ok, I have to stop, because what I want to write isn't nice, and I need to calm down.
I think I'll go back to turning the dining area into another shelter room and see if I can con shelter dad into putting in that ac unit in that room for the kids going in there.
Sigh, it is raining ferrets.
Well, Silver, Hawthorne, and Asia (Asia is a Mink Farm Escapee) are all going in for surgery of one type or another today.
Silver and Hawthorne have teeth issues, some to be removed. I guess I'll have two more eating nothing but duck soup at the shelter.
Asia is being altered.
Kane, one of the four surrendering at the vet, has major issues, the vet that he had been going to hasn't faxed the results on the blood tests that were taken, he wants to compare what he got to what they got.
We suspect he has a spinal injury by the way he is walking. But we want to see how things work out with the blood work, to see how the liver is doing. He may need to have a biopsy done.
To get the full story of Silver, Hawthorne and Kane, read A Desperate Cry for Help
I have been begging, writing letters, making calls, talking to people, knocking on doors, put together fund raisers. I am tapped out. It isn't working.
I keep asking for help organizing and finding fund raisers, I get "Oh, I'll help!" and I'll say, "OK, figure out what it will take to get this XYz fundraiser organized, and potential donors to help with door prizes or auction items." Nothing happens.
Here is the break down of what I have been doing:
Mass Mail to consumers (25000):
cost: more than you can imagine, trust me, I should have just given it to the vet.
return: $200 and lots of nasty letters and phone calls.
Mass Mail to businesses for fundraiser items, ect. (11,000):
cost: $800
return: 8 door prizes
Max and Erma's:
Cost: $75 for postage and cards to let folks know
return: $106
Garage Sale:
Cost: $100 ads in 5 papers
Return: $300 (take out the 100 and you have a 200 net)
Bark at the Park:
Cost: $50 gas and printing
Return: $40
Morphicon Convention (4 day event)
Cost: $140 room for 4 days, $35 gas, $20 food
Return: $600
Tile and brick fundraiser:
So far $500 has come in, but remember, the cost of the brick and tiles have to come out of that.
Phone solicitation: $20 (covers all of the long distance and everything)
Return: Lots of ticked off people, and $20, covers the long distance!!
Ad in Ferrets Magazine:
Cost: $420
Return: $19
Walking in stores and talking to Managers asking for donations, explaining what we are doing, what is happening
Cost: $170 in gas during May and June and a $455 repair bill on the mini van (hey, it has 248,700 miles on it, it's allowed to want to be repaired!! :-)
Return: An gift certificate for lingerie
Grant writing:
Cost: My time and printing
Return: So far this year 15 rejections (same reason, get into a public building and reapply)
One grant for $200, another for $50 (hey something is better than nothing!)
Benefit concert in July:
Cost: Printing flyers
Return: ?????
So, put on your thinking caps folks, IDEAS PLEASE!!
 Silver is the little girl from West Virginia, and Hawthorn is from the window well at a Lakewood Elementary School.
Both are at the vet. Friday will be dental day for both, their poor little mouths are a mess.
We will figure out what is up with little Silvers leg.
 
We desperately need help. The ferrets are coming in faster than they can be adopted.
The last donation that came in was two months ago.
Yesterday, I made a trip to 50 miles north of West Virginia. A woman who was coming home from a concert saw cats chasing this little ferret. She blew the horn and chased the cats off.
The little ferret came up to her; she has an old injury (looks like a smashed foot that healed wrong)
She tried everyone she could find to get help over the weekend; I was the only one to answer. She kept little Silver (what we named her) safe and fed. When I picked her up, I found the cutest little girl, you cannot gauge her age, her upper canines are shattered, her lower ones gone. Like I said, her foot looked like a bad break that healed wrong. She is a whole 14 ounces.
Right now she is at the vet, getting the care she needs, and Friday she will have dental work done.
Now, right before I left I got a call from a janitor at a Lakewood Elementary School. There is a ferret in one of those "wells" that are in front of windows that are on the lower floors.
I tell him, Ok, I'll get him on my trip back, make sure he has water and food. He says they have been giving him Mr. Chicken.
Well, I get there, climb down into a 4 foot pit, and get this boy. Severely dehydrated (his urine thick as honey), treated him with revolution for fleas, look in his mouth. God, what a mess. His one canine is gone and an infection has set in. I got him cooled down, and back here. He was bitten by who knows what, he has little scab marks on his hind quarters. He is a basket case.
Got another call today from a person who has ferrets, called last week, one was sick and the vet bills are getting too much. I tell this person today, that they have to get the ferrets over to my vet at 7AM, that is the only way I can take them, last week one was sick, this week two are sick, and they can't afford the vet bills any longer, job loss, health issues (life can throw you some really nasty hard balls). So they go to directly to the vet. No stopping here, from your house to Avon Lake Animal Clinic. Those are the terms, what your vet thought was not contagious, seems to be.
Now, if any of these cases were dogs or cats, the media would have been all over them. (Yes, the media was contacted) (My friends got on the wire as soon as I told them)
The lady in West Virginia is willing to do phone interviews or in person. My vet can back up what was said, he has the ferrets (Dr. Krupka, Avon Lake Animal Clinic).
So, here is the whole point of this, we desperately need help. Ever since the announcement that we are having a building donated, donations have dried up. I think that most of the community feels that this couple will take care of it, and that is so wrong. They are not making this shelter a private foundation, they are trying to give the shelter a fighting chance when it comes to grants, and give the ferrets the best possible shelter while they wait for their forever homes. We are a public supported charity.
If everyone on my space donated a quarter, this shelter could go on even if I jump off of a bridge.
So, please spread the word, and if you can donate a quarter, better yet, if you can donate a dollar.
The rant is over.
Oh yeah, picking up two today from Canton, there are messages on the machine for turn ins, a total 12.
HELP!!!!
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Donate Today!!
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Volunteer!
Help the Helpless!
Donate today!!
Ferrets RULE!!
Saturday, June 10,
5713 State Road, Parma, Ohio
9 AM to 4 PM
Lots of good stuff, Thomasville Entertainment Center, dishes, kids stuff, toys, books, video tapes.
All for a good cause. Help equip our building. Come down and say hello, shop, and see the old building that will give way to the new and a new home for the ferrets.
Mind Riot and Degameth both have teamed up to put on a benefit concert for Ferrets Unlimited Ferret Shelter to help equip the new building.
When: July 22, 2006 9 PM
Where: Maple Grove, 14832 Pease Rd. (Old Granger Rd), Maple Heights, Ohio 44137
Why: To help Ferrets Unlimited Ferret Shelter, a non profit, no kill, 501 (c)(3) shelter, equip the new building so they can provide a safe environment for all homeless ferrets to wait for their forever homes. And to help provide the best vet care possible for the shelter residents.
Cost: $10 per person (WHAT A DEAL!! TWO GREAT BANDS FOR $10 IN A GREAT BAR!!)
So plan on attending for a great night out, meeting new people, good music, and a general good time.
Limited edition t-shirts will be sold at the concert, for this concert only. Four t-shirts will be autographed by the bands and auctioned off in a silent auction.
This will be the party of the summer. For more information on Maple Grove: http://www.maplegrovebar.com/ or http://www.myspace.com/maplegrovebar
For information on DegaMeth/MSOD: http://www.myspace.com/msod
update: Jean was a guest on Bill Peter's Metal on Metal Show on WJCU, talking about the benefit, with Degameth/MSOD singer Greg. Joe was kind enough to make this interview available in MP3 format for us. It is a pretty big file, so right click it and save it to your computer to listen.
http://www.ferretsunlimited.org/billpeters-ferret.mp3
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