It’s been a terrible two weeks :(

Seamus seemed to pick up a bit after his bad teeth were removed but after a few days it started to get harder to get him to eat. I thought that maybe his mouth was hurting him so I made an appointment to see the vet on Tuesday. She checked his mouth and said everything was looking good but just to be on the safe side, I should go back to giving him his antibiotics twice a day.

I started him that again and Seamus seemed to pick up a bit but a couple of days later he wouldn’t eat on his own so I was back to syringing both the formula and smoothy into his mouth. I also noticed his left eye was looking a bit weepy so I made another appointment to see the vet.

It was Friday morning when I took him and my vet found that his eye was full of pus and that infection had gone into his nasal cavity so she said she’d give him a series of stronger antibiotics. She gave him a shot of Baytril and loaded up 3 more injections and gave them to me to give him one a day over the weekend.

On Friday night I kept on waking up every time I heard Seamus moving around and putting him in front of his smoothy, which he lapped up very energetically. The next morning he was eating his A/D formula, lapping up the smoothy, both of which had supplements mixed in to help his immune system and make him stronger.

Saturday morning we took him to the clinic so that Barbara, the vet nurse, could show Philip how to inject the Baytril subcutaneously. His eye was a bit gummy again but Barbara cleaned it up and even she agreed that Seamus was looking much better. We were both cautiously optimistic that he’d pull through this crisis.

Then it was Saturday night and that wasn’t so good. When I heard Seamus moving around I’d offer him the smoothy but this time he wasn’t interested. I was hoping that he’d eaten too much during the day so although I was concerned, I wasn’t overly worried.

However Sunday morning it was obvious that he was definitely not interested in eating anything. He wouldn’t touch the smoothy and when I tried to syringe the A/D formula into his mouth, most of it dribbled out. As the day grew longer, he grew weaker and I realised that this would not have a happy ending.

I had an appointment to take him for a check up with the vet on Monday morning and I knew that he’d be having his final injection if he lasted that long. I kept urging him to let go and join his friends at the Bridge but he kept fighting to stay. I held him all day, stroking him, and he spent the night sleeping between us in our bed then, at 6am, he took his final breath :(

I was a total mess yesterday and was completely wracked with guilt about the whole thing. All I could think of the whole day was a litany of “if only“.

If only I had realised Seamus had a tooth problem.

If only I had taken him to the vet when he started being picky with his food.

If only I could turn the clock back to that point and this time do things differently.

Dan, my youngest daughter admonished me, telling me it was okay to feel unhappy and mourn his loss but the guilt thing was unproductive. She told me to mentally assign the guilt I’m feeling to a little box, shut the lid, tie a string around it and put the box in a drawer and close it.

It’s wise advice but not so easy to do :(

Seamus O'Trouble 2006-2011

© 2011, Nona. All rights reserved.

Tagged with: •

Filed under: Dental Problems • Ferret Health • Ferrets as Pets

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!