To Fred Rahner,
 
I haven't had any experience w/lymphoma, but I have had experience w/
liquid prednisone, which, I am assuming is what Prelone Syrup is.  In
my experience, many of the liquid preds contain alcohol, which is why
ferrets don't like it and will gag and spit it out all over the place.
 
I don't know what the dose of pred in the prelone is, but there might
be a couple of things you can do.
 
Try mixing the prelone w/something else - my ferrets like OJ and I
sometimes give them a tsp of OJ and they lap it right up.  Can you try
doing something like this?
 
Or, see if you can switch to tablets.  Pred tabs are quite small to
begin with, and if you only need to give 1/4 tab or 1/8 tab, you can
very carefully cut the tab to that size by using nail clippers - yes,
the same type you clip your ferret's nails with.  By using the clippers,
you can accurrately cut the pill to the appropriate size w/out having
it disintegrate into a million little pieces.  Then, you can do 1 of
2 things:  crush the little piece into a fine powder and mix it w/a
teeny tiny bit of baby food - very small amt so you are sure the ferret
got the entire dose - then you can give more BF if your ferret likes it.
 
Or, you can slather the pice of tablet in Nutrical (or something similar)
and stick it in the mouth, and they will swallow the Nutrical, pill and
all.
 
You might try the Prelone in the BF, but I'm not sure that will work as
well.
 
About 10 years ago, there was a sweet tasting liquid Pred, but it was
taken off the market I believe because they found out the pred was
breaking down in that particular form - that was a good-tasting pred
and I had no problems administering it - when it went off the market I
switched to a different liquid pred that contained alcohol and that's
when the problems started.
 
I try to use the tabs whenever possible - like I said, they are very
small to begin w/and will mix wonderfully in chicken or turkey baby
food.
 
Good luck,
 
Debbie Riccio
WNYFLFA
[Posted in FML issue 1180]