Anyway, i'm here with bad news. My Brute has gone to Ferret Heaven. It came out of no where. March 14th would have been a year since we brought him home. So if some of you remember, an issue we faced with him was his weight. I was advised by you wonderful ferret lovers to switch his food to a different brand. We found a store that sells ZuPreem so we stuck with that. He lost weight and looked wonderful, was very active and playful. You would have never thought anything was wrong. On Monday night, while we let Brute and Bella run the house, we noticed that Brute just wasn't himself. He seemed slugglish and he would try and walk and his little back legs would just give out on him. My husband noticed that his belly was kinda swollen looking. We felt really bad. I monitored him throughout the day yesterday and he seemed to be getting worse so I called a Vet that I know sees ferrets and they scheduled me for this morning. By dinner time last night he just wasn't breathing right and had this look on his face, the saddest eyes i've ever had to look in to. When mu husband had a chance to really look at him he said he didn't think he was going to make it through the night. I called my friend and we took him to the Universary of Penn Animal Hospital. They put him in an oxygenated incubator and then did a thorough exam. It turns out he had fluid in his lungs, his spleen was inflammed and he had Lymphoma. They gave us our options from treatment that costs near $2,000 with only a 10% success rate to euthanizing him. It certainly was the hardest decision we have ever had to face. With options laid out for us we decided to have him euthanized because the Doctor explained that he was in the advanced stages of the Lymphoma which makes the success rate even lower. The Doctor left us alone with him to say our goodbyes, before euthanizing him, and he looked up at us, took 3 deep hard breaths and passed on, on his own. I'm thankful that he went on his own without having to be euthanized. It was his time and we had those last few moments with him. What hurts the most is that he was only a baby, he was 1 yr old. His sister, Bella, is in perfect health and very active and playful. They were from the same litter so are the same age. Now the question remains, what will she be like without him. She hardly slept last night and has been searching for her brother. Does anyone have any helpful advice? I don't want her to get depressed from him not being there anymore but is it right to go out and buy her a playmate? I'm so torn over this and I don't want it to seem like i'm replacing him. There will never be another Brute. I'm so confused right now. Any advice any of you can give would be great!

Thanks Bunches.

SO sorry to hear of your loss. I read this post after your post in ferret health (lymphoma theread). So won't be redundant on ideas. Except to say, don't rush your decision. Allow yourself and Bella a bit of time time to adjust and greive as needed. She may surprise you and you may very well become her new best buddy!

Hugs to you,

Kim

Josie made me do it! I had to build this just for her! www.vanityferret.com []