It’s been a challenging day so far. Emmett’s glasses broke over the weekend and his backup glasses were somehow never adjusted to actually fit him properly, so they are painful to wear.

He wore them to school and before I even arrived home from walking this morning, the school had called because Emmett was not feeling well and his glasses hurt.

I told them that I would be in to pick him up and we’d go get his glasses ordered. We’d also get his backups adjusted so he can wear them until the new ones arrived. I figured it’d be about a week or so. I was not looking forward to a week of Emmett without his glasses.

The whole not feeling good thing was combination of things. It was in large part related to his mom and everything going on there. It was made worse by not being able to see and his backup glasses causing him pain. It was pretty much a double whammy for him today.

I got him out to the glasses store and thankfully, his glasses were still under warranty for about another month. Otherwise it would have been over a hundred dollars. Rather than order a replacement, they simply grabbed a new pair off the display and swapped out the lenses. How fucking cool is that?

They even adjusted his backups so that they didn’t hurt him anymore. Big thanks to them for that. Emmett is still not feeling well so getting him back to school isn’t happening today.

Unfortunately, the bad news continues because it appears that our oldest ferret Lemme probably has adrenal disease. This is ultimately fatal, if not treated but treatment is insanely expensive.

Assuming this is what we’re dealing with, there are a few options. One is surgical removal of the adrenal gland but that’s risky and outrageously expensive. The second is medical intervention. The medication doesn’t always work and even if it does, it sorta masks the symptoms but doesn’t treat the underlying problem. From what I’ve been able to find, monthly injections are at least $50 and are only a temporary fix to address things like hairloss ect..

If this is adrenal disease, the only thing I can humanely do would be to have her put down.

I’ve checked into the surgery costs and we’re talking upwards of $3500. There’s no possibility of that happening. I feel awful but who could afford that?

My biggest concern is for the kids. They been forced to deal with more than their fair share of loss over the last year. Our dog Maggie died last year from cancer. One of our other ferrets died from what was likely cancer. These were all very common conditions for the ferret and the breed of dog but it was awful. They’ve lost 3 great grandparents and their mom left.

I’ve prepared them for what is likely to happen with Lemme the ferret but it’s not going to go over well at all.

I was able get an appointment for her tomorrow at 4pm. Even if all that happens is the diagnosis of adrenal disease and subsequent euthanasia, it’s gonna run almost $300. Even simple blood work will add an additional $150 to that.

There’s just no way I could afford monthly medication and lab work.

The kids feel like I’m putting money over a life and I suppose I am in a way but it’s more complicated than that. It’s not black and white and trust me, I feel like a monster for even talking about having to do this. Lemme is a huge pain in the ass because she’s an escape artist but she’s also our first ferret and we got her during the first separation back in 2014. Shit, she’s pushing 6 years of age and they don’t usually live much longer than that. I guess I didn’t realize she was that old.

Anyway, if she needs put down, the kids are going to be devastated yet again and there isn’t a goddamn thing I can do to shield them from it.