R.I.P. Tweak

It wasn’t long ago that our family said goodbye to our female ferret named Pip. Well as I write this, our other sable, Tweak, is dying. With all of the commotion around here the last couple weeks (starting a new job, driving to Kentucky for a wedding etc.) I haven’t paid much attention to Tweak. He lives in his 6 foot tall multi-decker cage in my home office. As long as he was coming out to say hi and grab food, I’d scratch him under his chin and be on my way.

Well, I didn’t notice that he was rapidly losing his hair. Ferret owners know that’s the sign for Adrenal gland disease. This disease affects a surprising number of ferrets in their later years. One of our old ferrets succumbed to the disease after a long drawn out battle. Tweak however showed no signs a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, I found him in a coma, and I noticed his adrenal gland had become huge, and actually protruded from his body. At this point he was too far gone to save him, and given his unresponsive state, I decided to let him die in his own cage curled up in his own bed.

The horrible thing is that he has lasted for a day in this state, no more responsive than before. I go back and forth on whether he can be in pain, and my wife assures me that he isn’t. It’s not a wonderful feeling however. And given his state, I may euthanize him myself because I don’t want him to suffer through another night.

This sucks. Jess, give your critters a hug and tell em you love em.