Sanctuary News
Update: Jan 10th, 2010
We have moved to an easier to navigate and build FREE website at:
UPDATE: March 28th, 2009:
Today, we were honored to have guests from the GCFA!
Bob & Dara DiBenedetto introduced us to Steve, the new director of the GCFA, and the GCFA`s web designer, Seth. They all came for lunch, and to visit our sanctuary. We shared food & stories, and played with fuzzies all afternoon! As usual, when anyone comes to visit, the time just flew. We traded lots of stories & ideas. It`s always fun to compare notes when other shelter people come. (And like I`ve said before, there`s nothing so great as being with others who share your passion!) It was a wonderful afternoon.
Steve & Seth are going to be good for the GCFA. They have fresh, new (excellent!) ideas, and the determination to follow through on them. Most-importantly, they have a love of ferrets, and the desire to do right by them. These handsome young men will be a blessing to the ferret community. I hope they come back soon!
More later.
Love, Zoo
UPDATE: March 24th, 2009:
Our good friend and web designer Marta is currently unable to help us with the website. We are not as experienced & knowledgeable as Marta, but we will attempt to keep the website updated until her situation improves. Marta, huge hugs to you <3 <3 <3
Much love, Zoo
Update: January 7th, 2009
We were very honored to have Shirley Hewett as our guest today!
We got a call from Bill Gruber of the FML, saying Shirley would be flying into Chicago in a few days, and would we like a visitor.
I was doing the happy dance. (To me, Bill Gruber is a celebrity--a HERO--I think so much of him--and he CALLED us!!!!) THEN--we were going to get to meet Shirley Hewett???(ANOTHER celebrity!) I was so excited!!! I didn`t get to go to the ferret symposium, where she was a guest speaker. Couldn`t leave the furkids. But NOW, I was going to get to meet her--and she was coming to visit our sanctuary & meet our furkids!
WOW. The afternoon & evening passed so quickly. Shirley met our kids, ate with us, and shared some new & different ideas about natural housing & feeding etc. I am so happy to have her as a friend. She is an amazing woman. We chattered like magpies, & had a wonderful time together. She is intelligent, witty, well-educated, and fun. ( I love her accent!) We have never had a guest from Australia before LOL.
I hope she comes back, someday. We really enjoyed her company.
More later.
Love, Zoo
Update: December 30th, 2008
I have not been able to send Christmas cards or gifts to ANYONE.
We have had a very rough month. A mystery illness has hit our room. It mocked symptoms of ECE--nasty diarrhea, ranging in color from mint green to olive green, & even black-ish. Fecal tests were negative.
The furkids became severely dehydrated, and difficult to rehydrate. When we picked them up, they felt stiff & hard, like little blocks of wood. Some ate willingly, some did not.
In 10 1/2 years of running this sanctuary, I have never seen such severe dehydration. In 3-9 hours, they became so sunken, despite massive fluids being given, that they were almost unrecognizeable. They looked like shrink-wrapped fur over bones, and their eyes were sunken back into their heads. Death for some,was following in several hours, to a few days.It was a nightmare. They looked like something out of a sci fi movie.
We were treating symptoms with subcutaneous fluids, around the clock feedings, amoxi drops, carafate, pepcid suspension, and pet tinic. Dr. Katie began to do some bloodwork, & sent home metronidazole, and we tried it on some of them.
In spite of all efforts, 21 became severely ill. Bloodwork in the ones tested showed high hematocrit(severe dehydration) and kidney failure. A few showed low blood glucose. Other than that, there was nothing remarkable.
In 3 1/2 weeks, we lost 10 of our furkids to this illness. One day we lost three of our kids, within hours. On December 10th, we added Essiac to our treatment, and then gave it to everyone in the room, hoping it would boost the immune system. There were no more cases after December 16th, and the remaining 11 sick ferrets slowly recovered--including Bear Bear & Ruckus, whose bloodwork had shown kidney failure!
Dr. Heller, a ferret vet /owner/and breeder in Murraysville, PA, saw much the same thing at her place. We emailed back & forth, & spoke on the phone a couple of times, comparing symptoms. She sent out tissue samples, and it was discovered that the illness was NOT a mutation of the ECE virus. She had begun using tamiflu on hers, and it appeared to be working.
The secret seemed to be two pronged, in my opinion. Keep them alive long enough for the immune system to work--and BOOST that immune system. Although Essiac can have diuretic effects, I chose to use it because of the many GOOD benefits, including the calming effects of the slippery elm on the tummy, and the help with the immune system it appears to have. Either the illness was a virus that just ran its course, or the Essiac did boost everyone`s immune system, because the sick ones receiving it recovered--and no one else GOT sick...
In addition to the 10 we lost to the illness, we lost Mallory. She was somewhere between seven & eight years old, adrenal & insulinomic with cancer. She ate a nice meal, cuddled down in her bag, & died in her sleep.
We lost Laurel. The tumor on her head began to cause her pain :(
We lost Tanner. He got a flaming bladder infection that no meds would touch.
We lost Tuffy (Lisette`s heart patient) Tuffy needed around the clock care, and got four more good months with us. It`s all but impossible to give around the clock care when one works long hours like Lisette does.
Then, on Christmas day, we went to our daughter`s for dinner.( It was the first time I`d left the house in weeks.) We returned to find Jack dead in his cage. It appeared to have been a heart attack, or massive stroke, due to the position he was in. Jack was with us for over six years. I think he was around two when he joined us. His death was a total shock. He hadn`t even been sick.
So, after 15 losses in the last month, we are hoping for a better new year. Our remaining 58 babies are doing well.
More later.
Love, Zoo
Update: November 8th, 2008
Our sanctuary had a visitor from Ethiopia for two weeks!!
Nell Angelo`s email that morning (October 23) read "Recognizing me at the airport" "I will be wearing some fairly bright blue boots, and perhaps a jacket to match" (Nothing about height, weight, age, or hair color etc.---just bright blue BOOTS????) I told my husband "Oboy. This woman is going to be with us for two weeks. We`re in trouble." Strangely enough, it worked though. We spotted her right away!!!
Ethiopia is way behind the U.S. in the area of veterinary care. Nell
wanted to learn all she could about ferret illnesses, & how to counter some of them. We are not vets here, but we have a broad base of experience, and are willing to share what we have learned, & what has worked for us.
During her visit here, Nell observed a ferret crash & revival, listened to some heart & lung sounds, learned how to recognize several ferret maladies, learned how to do a blood glucose test and a fecal test, learned a better way to syringe feed, and an easier way to do subQ fluids. She scooped some litterpans, met two former owners who returned to visit the babies they had surrendered to Zoo`s Ferret Sanctuary, witnessed the surrender of a little heart patient, and met a family we counseled.She learned how to divide a syringe of lupron into individual doses, how to mix it, & how to administer it. She has already seen the effects of this wonder drug by observing our 21 who have been helped by it. She learned how to mix meds to treat ear mites and heartworm too--and whatever else we could think of to teach her.
Prior to this trip, I think Nell believed that adrenal disease and
insulinoma were "the kiss of death"--but now she has seen ferrets with
these conditions, being medically managed, running & playing happily,
all over the room.. She has seen lymphoma babies ducking in & out of
tunnels--and ones with inoperable masses who act as normally as any of
the others. She is learning what to look for, & ways to keep them
comfortable.
From here, she traveled to the ferret symposium in Pittsburgh PA.
Nell lives a bit on the wild side, but she is a wonderful person, and a lot of fun. We enjoyed having her as our guest..
More later.
Love,
Zoo
UPDATE: November 6th, 2008
We just participated in the Indiana rescue. 16 ferrets had to be removed from a house that was going through foreclosure. The ferrets had to be out of there by Oct. 7th. If the shelters didn`t step forward, the animals would be euthanized.
The guy didn`t know their names. They weren`t up to date on vacs. They had no litter pans. All 16 were very thin. The ferrets had to walk through five inch deep excrement to get to their (mostly empty!) food & water dishes.The guy took them out of the cage once a month & hosed it out!!! The place reeked so badly it would have gagged a maggot. They were covered in feces & urine burns. All had fleas & ear mites. Poor things. Disgusting.
All 16 got along well--and no one was particularly bonded with any other, so it was decided that the group could be split. (Usually it isn`t a good idea to split a group.)
We took the four that would never be adopted by ANYONE. All are adrenal. One has an egg-sized tumor in her chest. She is old, and doesn`t have long, but I have promised her we`ll make it as wonderful as possible for her. One little boy had a particularly bad TERRIBLE case of ear mites. They had chewed clear through his ear drum. He was badly dehydrated, as well as severely anemic. He`s somewhere between four & five years old. There`s a long, skinny albino who is missing half his fur. He arrived covered with a rash, & scratches, infected by urine burn. Dehydrated, and very tender in the tummy. The last one, a male--maybe four years old, is totally bald, except for his black socks. All four will be on lupron now.
I know we didn`t need more ferrets, but Heartland Small Animal Rescue sent us a plea--and we just couldn`t let the ferrets die...
My wonderful husband Kurt took the 7 hour, round trip drive to Indiana to get the Indiana Four. We will spend the rest of their lives trying to make it up to them for what the last human did to them. I`m not sorry we took them.
UPDATE: October 22nd, 2008
A while back, a very nice young woman from Arizona signed our guest book.
I emailed to thank her for the nice comments, & we realized I had helped her online, months before with her little Lulu!!!
After a few months of emails & phonecalls back & forth, DeAnn let us know she would be traveling to Kansas to visit her parents. She wanted to drive the 8 hours from there, & come visit our sanctuary! We were overjoyed.
DeAnn came for a visit on August 13th (2008).
In the first 48 hours she was here, she memorized all 70 ferrets` names!! She knew which ones were on meds, & how much. She scooped litterpans. She washed meds dishes. She ran ferrets, & played with them. She scrubbed cages. Oh my, what a Godsend she was!!!! We had so much fun working together with the ferrets. She learned how to test blood glucose levels & give fluids, and saw ferrets in all walks of life, with many different health issues. She learned a lot.
DeAnn had only planned to stay three days, but the time flew by so quickly that she agreed to extend her visit by a couple of days. I`m old enough to be her mother, but we were both like a couple of kids--staying up late, & rising early, so we could have as much time together as possible.
Not only did she bust her fanny helping us with the ferrets, she also left a pretty large donation for the babies :)
On the fifth day, when DeAnn left, I really felt a deep sense of loss. We really missed her companionship & all the help! I found myself wishing she lived nearby.
We have kept in close touch, during the past several weeks. DeAnn is suffering ferret withdrawal.
She will be coming for another visit in December.
UPDATE: September 14th, 2008
Our annual ferret lovers gathering will be on Sunday, September 28th,
this year.
You are invited to come meet our babies, see our sanctuary, & learn
how it works.
This is not a fundraiser--It`s an opportunity to meet others who share
your passion for fuzzies.
There will be plenty of food, soft drinks, & conversation. It will be
open- house style, beginning around noon, & lasting til whenever. (Last
year, our last guest left around midnight. LOL. Nobody wanted it to
end!) We like it when guests bring pictures of their babies to share.
We would be so happy to meet more of you! We are in Kirkland, Illinois.
Please email for directions.
Love,
Zoo
UPDATE: June 10th, 2008
I sat in on Jeremy`s surgery this morning. Things went very well. The tumors were just under the skin & not connected to, or grown into anything vital. They came out easily. Just as the vet was closing, Jeremy`s heart stopped. Just stopped.
Jeremy was a wonderful deaf silver blaze, who came in with a thin, wirey, scraggly coat, & looking skeletal. He was too weak then, for surgery to remove the two marble-sized lumps on his side. In almost three months` time, he had gained weight, grown stronger,& had a beautiful new coat--but the lumps were growing too--and one of them was now ulcerated.
Only last night, he was running & playing--apparently healthy, except for the large lumps that were to be removed. His bloodwork had looked good, and he was strong enough for surgery, so it was was a "go"----and now his life is cut short. Despite all efforts, we lost our boy.
At least he didn`t die in pain. He was unconscious, under the anesthetic.
Jeremy wasn`t on our site. June & Glen foster several for us, and Jeremy was one of "theirs". We are heartsick--but at least we have answers. We did a necropsy & discovered his heart was about three times the size it should have been. (Cardiomyopathy.) Often, patients with it can`t survive the anesthetic. Also, there were nodules on the lungs & in the chest area. (cancer) He didn`t stand a chance. Even if he had survived the surgery, the cancer or heart would most likely have taken him within a month or so---and we`re lucky it didn`t before NOW.
Strangely enough, by being too weak for surgery, he was allowed to have some time on this earth, being truly loved, & truly happy.
June & Glen did an amazing job with this wonderful boy--and for those few months he had with them, life was good...We hope to see you on the other side, Jeremy...
UPDATE: May 30th, 2008
We were stunned to get an email from Friends Of Ferret Shelters, saying they wanted to do a raffle for us, in honor of our sanctuary`s 10th anniversary! They want to help our babies. I can`t stop smiling!
We are very blessed to have so many caring friends in the ferret community. The prizes look incredible!!!!
Here`s a link to the raffle.
www.shelterfriends.blogspot.com
Love, Zoo
UPDATE: May 5th, 2008
Happy 10th anniversary to Zoo`s Ferret Sanctuary!!!
In December of 1997, there were two little ferrets living in a pot house in Wisconsin. They did not have names--They were referred to as "the ferrets". The owners thought it was funny to exhale marijuana into their faces & watch their reactions. They often did this, at the parties they had.
The ferrets did not have a litter pan--the poo was piled high in the corners of their filthy cage. The food dish was often empty--and the water dish wasn`t clean. When one of "the ferrets" went bald, someone told the owners it was cancer---and they had coped with that by throwing her out in the snow to die...
Fast forward through the winter, my daughter`s friend attended one of their wild parties in early May of 1998.
Having found out after the fact, about the poor little bald girl who had been thrown out to die, she decided to smuggle the remaining ferret out of there. She knew we had two ferrets, and asked if we would take the ferret in, if she brought it to us. She called the ferret "Clepto" (for "stolen") LOL.
The ferret had had a "Pretty Terrible" life-- so we removed the "P" & the "T" (the pretty terrible) and "Clepto`s" new name became "Cleo" She was about three years old--and she was our first rescue.
Cleo was in pretty bad shape, & smelled like pot for a couple weeks, despite repeated bathings. (Oh how little we knew, back then----and we only had TWO FERRETS!!!!) Fortunately, we had a wonderful ferret vet, with whom we developed a close friendship.(He taught me most of what I know about ferrets.)
That`s how it started. We took in eight or nine more, that year.
If anyone had told me in May of 1998 that my husband & I would share a home with 69 ferrets, I`d have said they were nuts! If anyone had told me my husband would build TWO ROOMS, just for those ferrets, I d never have believed them. If anyone had said I`d be talking & emailing with people from all over the United States about their ferrets, I`d have laughed. Come to think of it--If someone had told me my nickname would become "Zoo" or that I`d be called "The mother of all ferrets" I`d have been in stitches!!! LOL.
Anyhow, this week it`s our 10th anniversary. Pretty neat, huh?
Love, Zoo
UPDATE: January 14th, 2008
We have two new friends! We got a call from a young couple in Rochelle, Illinois, who had read about our sanctuary in Ferrets Magazine. They wanted to come visit us & learn more about ferrets. They had taken in two, about a week ago, from someone they knew.
They have researched, read, & now learned hands-on how to easily care for their babies.
They will be returning to learn more while volunteering, on occasion. (A win-win for EVERYBODY!)
Kim & Josh, if you`re reading this-- I am so happy to have met you and your babies. You`re going to be excellent ferrents!
Love, Zoo