Hi everyone! I found your list 3 days ago in desperation. I'm a new ferret lover/owner. My girl, Snowy, (albino, real original, huh?) is 2 1/2 years old and we got her from a teenager who was going off to college and couldn't take her. She is a sweet, sweet thing and has brought me the type of joy that only people like yourselves can understand. We've had her 3 months. Well, I've spent alot of time trying to educate myself of the right, wrong, good, bad and ugly of ferret care. But, Snowy was happy and healthy, and I had her previous vet information so I wasn't too concerned. Sunday morning she bounced out of her cage and after two bounces she just laid her head down and didn't move. She was doing a chomping, like of smacking noise and I knew I was in trouble. She wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink. No pooh and no piddle from the night before either. Well, the vet she'd been going to is in an adjoining city and didn't answer his pager and the vet for my cat wasn't open on Sundays and doesn't see ferrets anyway. I got on the web, I made Duck Soup, I smeared my fingers with chicken baby food, you name it -- if I read it I tried it! I was afraid (and inexperienced) about how to force feed a ferret. I stayed up all night trying everything I read, and every 4 hours I tried again. It didn't work. Snowy has been at the vets since Monday very early with a very high white blood cell count and a BUN of 63, (normal about 30(?) She was dehydrated by the time I got her there. They are giving her fluids and antibiotics. They haven't identified where the infection is coming from, the stomach x-ray didn't show anything, and basically the vet is still looking for the problem. She says Snowy is normally too young for renall failure, unless it's genetic. I don't know of anything that she could have eaten that would have poisioned her. We are very, very careful during playtime! Anyway, I'm a basket case and I just had to share with everyone out there. I also want to thank Bill and Cynthia Hill for their help and comfort up to this point. So, any comforting words would be GREATLY appreciated. ANY ADVICE, recommendations, questions, suggestions, hints, etc. about being a good ferret parent are welcomed at my personal email. If any of you are in Houston, TX please let me know. The AFA doesn't list a group in Houston, so I'm looking for good contacts. Thanks so much for your help. Your stories have made me laugh, cry, and want to adopt a couple of more, which we were going to do as playmates for Snowy and I. Right now, though, I need good stories about how long your ferrets have lived and how they survived an infection. After reading the list I feel like fuzzys may be prone to all sorts of difficult diseases and health problems that would just break my heart. I don't want that to be true! Thanks again for your input and help. Snowy's mama [Posted in FML issue 2927]