Jebabba Has Blown His Coat

I'll have to see if I can get a picture that illustrates how much lighter he is right now. He got a big beautiful winter coat last December - thick, soft, fluffy, almost black. So of course, now that the days are getting longer, he's shedding like crazy. Hooray for spring shed! Ugh.

I pet him, and my hand is covered with fur. So I've been giving him Ferret Lax pretty much daily. Tuesday evening he coughed and scared the heck out of me (hairballs = very bad!). So I bathed him and then spent about 20 minutes plucking him. Poor little guy was NOT happy! He's not going to go all the way to the undercoat like Cheeba did the one year, but he's definitely much less fluffier than he was before. At least he already had a new coat coming in - his undercoat is peppered with dark hairs already, so he isn't going to have any weird "where is his hair" days in there. And since the bath there's been no more coughing, which is a relief.

Tags

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ferret, ferrets, hairballs, Ferret Lax, spring shed

Ferret Life Moves On

Things are moving along as always here. I haven't posted recently because I just wasn't sure to say. After having so many ferret health issues to deal with the past year, I feel kind of at a loss. Bonk does have insulinoma and adrenal disease, but it's fairly easy to maintain. It's so weird not to have any seriously ill ferrets, and I'm not sure what to do with myself. Of course, I've probably jinxed myself by saying that. But for the moment, Bonk and Jebabba are just fine.

Bonk has some hind leg weakness, and a few BG tests has shown that it's probably adrenal related, not due to his insulinoma. His BG is right where it should be. He's not as playful as he used to be, but he's eating well, both baby food and dry food.

My favorite ferret thing right now is cuddling them after they've woken up. At 5 when I finish up work, I bring them into the family room with me in a big ferret bed. Then for about 10 minutes, they just lay there cuddling with each other, stretching and pushing against my hand to make me scritch them. It's adorable.

Jebabba has gotten more kissy. He used to just give kisses occasionally, but now he loves to give kisses, especially after he gets his baby food. He'll walk, crawl and stretch his way over to me, and I'll pick him up. As I cuddle and stroke him, he'll lick my neck and the side of my face and snuggle into me. I think maybe he's decided that he's going to take over the cuddly ferret role now that Cheeba is gone.

I still think about Cheeba a lot, but fondly, not sadly. I still miss him a lot of course, but now I can remember him and the things he used to do with a smile rather than tears. Don't get me wrong, there are still tears sometimes when something really reminds me of him. But for the most part I'm doing better with the loss.

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ferret, ferrets, insulinoma, adrenal disease