Jim's Insulinoma Surgery
Donation protected
This is Jim, he is a ferret, and he needs surgery. This is his story.
Jim came into our lives one dark rainy night at the end of November in 2015. My wife had been following the Boston Animal Rescue League on Facebook and saw a new post for a ferret up for adoption. We had two other rescue ferrets and had decided that we had room to expand our business (a group of ferrets) to include at least one more. When we saw Sunny's (Jim's shelter name) picture and read his description, we knew we had to go meet him right away.
When we got there, we met the sweetest, cuddliest, most loveable ferret we'd ever seen. Rest assured we were of course in love with our first two rescues, but let's face it, ferrets are not always known for their ability to sit still and cuddle. When we met Jim, he immediately fell asleep in our arms and we knew that we had to bring him home with us. On the way home we started thinking of names. We named our first two after people who had touched our lives. When we thought about Jim's wonderful personality, one name came to mind. With that we christened him James Maury "Jim" Henson Ferret-Greatorex in honor of a wonderful man who touched the world.
Like so many animals in the shelter, Jim's story was heartbreaking, but we tried to be pragmatic in our decision, thinking about the time we had to spend with him and the money we had to spend on him. He is a young ferret so we thought we'd have plenty of time before we had to worry about some of the more expensive medical issues that so often plague older ferrets.
We were wrong. During a recent checkup our veterinarian took a measurement of Jim's blood sugar and then presented us with the bad news. His glucose is well below the low end of the normal range and he has been diagnosed with insulinoma. Insulinoma is the name for tumors on the pancreas that cause an over-production of insulin which results in low blood sugar. If blood sugar drops too low, the patient can suffer seizures and worse. Insulinoma is very common in ferrets, but we thought it would come later in life and weren't prepared for the mental and financial burden so soon.
There are two courses of treatement. There is medication that can be taken twice daily which will help raise blood sugar levels, but which won't do anything to extend life. And there is a surgical option where the doctor can attempt to remove the tumors from the pancreas which is a much better solution, though there are no guarantees. The tumors may not be easily found, may be too small to remove, there may be complications...
But Jim is more than just our pet. He is a very special part of our life and we are going to do everything we can for him. Your donation will, most simply, help us pay for his surgery. Any additional funds raised will be placed into an account for any future medical needs he or any of our other little fur babies may have. Jim's surgery is scheduled for early January and we hope to raise some if not all of the money by then.
Thank you for reading this and please do consider making a donation. To say you will have my gratitude will hardly do justice to the thanks in my heart.
Jim came into our lives one dark rainy night at the end of November in 2015. My wife had been following the Boston Animal Rescue League on Facebook and saw a new post for a ferret up for adoption. We had two other rescue ferrets and had decided that we had room to expand our business (a group of ferrets) to include at least one more. When we saw Sunny's (Jim's shelter name) picture and read his description, we knew we had to go meet him right away.
When we got there, we met the sweetest, cuddliest, most loveable ferret we'd ever seen. Rest assured we were of course in love with our first two rescues, but let's face it, ferrets are not always known for their ability to sit still and cuddle. When we met Jim, he immediately fell asleep in our arms and we knew that we had to bring him home with us. On the way home we started thinking of names. We named our first two after people who had touched our lives. When we thought about Jim's wonderful personality, one name came to mind. With that we christened him James Maury "Jim" Henson Ferret-Greatorex in honor of a wonderful man who touched the world.
Like so many animals in the shelter, Jim's story was heartbreaking, but we tried to be pragmatic in our decision, thinking about the time we had to spend with him and the money we had to spend on him. He is a young ferret so we thought we'd have plenty of time before we had to worry about some of the more expensive medical issues that so often plague older ferrets.
We were wrong. During a recent checkup our veterinarian took a measurement of Jim's blood sugar and then presented us with the bad news. His glucose is well below the low end of the normal range and he has been diagnosed with insulinoma. Insulinoma is the name for tumors on the pancreas that cause an over-production of insulin which results in low blood sugar. If blood sugar drops too low, the patient can suffer seizures and worse. Insulinoma is very common in ferrets, but we thought it would come later in life and weren't prepared for the mental and financial burden so soon.
There are two courses of treatement. There is medication that can be taken twice daily which will help raise blood sugar levels, but which won't do anything to extend life. And there is a surgical option where the doctor can attempt to remove the tumors from the pancreas which is a much better solution, though there are no guarantees. The tumors may not be easily found, may be too small to remove, there may be complications...
But Jim is more than just our pet. He is a very special part of our life and we are going to do everything we can for him. Your donation will, most simply, help us pay for his surgery. Any additional funds raised will be placed into an account for any future medical needs he or any of our other little fur babies may have. Jim's surgery is scheduled for early January and we hope to raise some if not all of the money by then.
Thank you for reading this and please do consider making a donation. To say you will have my gratitude will hardly do justice to the thanks in my heart.
Organizer
Cheyenne Greatorex
Organizer
Randolph, MA