Hello everyone again!
 
 This message is intended mostly for Dr Williams (I'll be attempting to
call you as well on thursday, Dr. Williams.)
 
 I have a recent ferret I rescued from well-meaning if underinformed
owners, she is approximately 6 years old. When I picked her up, her nails
were untrimmed, she was lethargic and thin-furred (to the point of being
bald just over the hump uf her back), and after 6 years, the family had
never named her (this gives me a clue as to the amount of love she
recieved..)
 
  I took her home, bathed her, trimmed her nails, and examined her..  Her
ears were filthy, and she was STILL terribly lethargic - and then I found
it - a lump in her abdomen.  A LARGE lump in her abdomen..
 
  I immediately made an appointment for her at the vets, where he took
her, treated her for 3 days for dehydration, and opened her up, unsure
whether to let her wake up at all after he looked. What he found was a
large ovarian tumor - in a human, it would have been basketball-sized! -
but apparently it was all one piece, and he was able to remove it.
 
 (Did I mention that this ferret had never been spayed, and never had a
litter that survived either?)
 
        Anyway, Dr. Williams, I would like to send you the tumor to be
analyzed, to see if it was malignant or not, but then I discovered that
the vet had saved it in formalin, instead of freezing - would it still be
worth examining?
 
 I will try and call you tomorrow to ask you in more detail, Dr.
williams, but I wanted to warn you in advance. :)
 
 
        Next question!  Another member of the U.F.A, recently had a
ferret come down ill, she nearly died outright - the eventual diagnosis
was tenatively `Proliferative Bowel Disease'  Would you know anything
about this disease, it's symptoms, and it's treatment?  (Antibiotics
pulled the ferret through at the last moment, and she's a bouncing bundle
again today!)
 
 
 
        State of Utah:  Our meetings with Salt Lake County are slowed to
a halt again, due to having each one cancelled when we set them - we have
been up against an animal control officer who has constantly insisted
that the fee's and restrictions she was proposing were in line with what
she intended to propose for dogs and cats in november, and that we should
agree to them now, so she could work them into the dog and cat proposal.
   3 weeks ago, she appeared on the evening news, announcing her new `pet
proposal' - not a -THING- like she had been telling us and the county..
        Once again, she was attempting to charge ferret owners SIX TIMES
the cost of a dog license for ferret licenses, as well as other ludicrous
restrictions. (She was told by the county council to include a quarantine
period for ferrets, and she did - six months, at animal services, at
owner expense!  (an unvaccinated dog or cat BITTEN BY A RABID ANIMAL can be
quarantined for 6 months at a local vet's!)
        Since that time, we have been unable to schedule a meeting with
anyone, and are truly planning to bring a videocamera to the next meeting
with this woman, and TELL her that we don't trust anything she says
off-camera anymore.. (We have both contradictory statements on video now,
fortunately, if only we had a lawyer.. :)  )
 
Well, that's my scoop for the night, thank you. :)
 
Matt Ouimette, President
Utah Ferret Association
 
[Posted in FML issue 0967]