Shi-Low passed away this morning.

I'm a huge pet lover, always have been. Mike and I have four pets. Two cats (Slinkster and Catbug) and two ferrets (Shi-Low and Frenzy).

Shi-Low is very sick.

Like, when I'm talking sick, I'm not talking oh-the-poor-baby-has-a-few sniffles. I'm not even talking trip-to-the-vet ill. We've taken him to the vet continuously over the last few months and he's only gotten worse. He's lost 200 grams (about a fifth of his body weight) in the last month.

This was Shi-Low a few months ago, right before we put him on Lupron (skinny as hell, a few superficial tumors on his toes, and losing his hair):



Shi-Low today, a good 500 grams lighter than he was with even more pronounced bones, tumors, and hair loss. Also that blister on his nose:



We can't figure out what's causing it. The vet says he looks like an "old man ferret", like he's six or seven, not the little four-year-old ferret we've got. The vet thinks it could be an insulin deficiency on top of his adrenal disease (we were told that Lupron would improve him months a-fucking-go), so we're trying a few antibiotics, liver healing meds, and we're calling the vet on Tuesday to make sure that everything is okay (according to the vet, if it wasn't a long weekend, he'd have had Shi-Low hospitalized.) So, we go home with a few meds.

By "a few meds" I'm talking, well, he's apparently $545 worth of sick and the rack of medicines we're giving him that look like this:





Clockwise from upper left:
Powdered "Carnivore Care" dietary supplement and feeding syringe
IV supplies/needles
IV fluids
Milk Thistle Meds (for liver care)
Antibiotic
Adrenal care meds
Meds Syringes

Apparently this all equals a fuckload of a lot of money. JFC, I knew it was going to be pricey, but that's more than I have in my bank account at the moment.

Anyway. I've learned how to give my ferret IV fluids and we're now feeding him a powdered calorie-rich food with the hopes that he'll put on weight. Wish us some luck.


Still my little baby.

It's been a long day. I'm off to the grocery store.