We knew the muskrat was old, and had some issue with his mouth that was going to be looked at today, but on Friday his mouth was looking bigger and so by Saturday morning we decided to sedate him and check things out.

The growth on his face grew very quickly and was not removable. We were (are) suspicious of cancer, and as we were deciding whether or not we should wake him up from the procedure he started to crash.

So, let’s back-peddle for a minute.  When Jill called me Saturday morning at 7:00 I thought it was to tell me about the muskrat. It was not. She had found the killdeer dead. What a shock! This bird was beautiful and pretty special to watch. S/he arrived in January with 6 other songbirds from a rehabber in Tennessee.

And, if we want to back-peddle even further, Dixie ferret has inoperable tumors in a couple of places. This weekend she refused to take her medicines and her weight has dropped quite a bit. We have been keeping her comfortable and her quality of life has seemed fine, that is until today. So, the decision was made that she would be euthanized.

Necropsies and tests have been and are occurring for all of them.

They all will be missed!

The pics don’t do Muskrat justice, so take a look of the video where you can see a younger man with his other half.