>If a ferret has stopped breathing, rather than give mouth-to-mouth >respiration, After a Fervac vaccination I gave at home, Cooper went into analphylactic shock. Within one minute, he was not breathing, his pupils were fixed and dialated, and he was blue. I administered epinephrine but he didn't start breathing. I then used gentle mouth to *nose* respiration to save his life. The emergency clinic said that was appropriate given the size of the animal. >hold the ferret by its hind legs and, keeping your arms straight, swing >the animal to the left and then to right. My vet used a similar technique once. Dancing Bear has a tremendous fluid buildup in his lungs and is on a huge dose of Lasix 4 times daily. Because of DB's soft diet, he needed to have his teeth professionally cleaned. After a quick 15 minute cleaning, DB's lungs were filled with fluid and he was struggling to breathe. The vet supported DB on the length of his arm and sandwiched DB with his other arm. He then swung DB from shoulder height towards the floor several times. You cannot believe the amount of fluid that was expelled. I'm sure DB thought he was toast during the swinging. >with introduction of new, young ferrets to older ferrets, if green >diarrhea appears in the older ferrets, assume a helicobacter infection >before you think ECE. The other thing to consider is simple stress which can cause temporary green diarrhea. The only way to diagnose helicobacter is to do a bioposy. Since it is much easier (and cheaper) to treat helicobacter than to diagnose it with certainty, many vets prescribe the helicobacter treatment first. But the drugs used to treat helicobacter will clear up a lot of problems (as may the passage of time), so it is commonly assumed that if the problem clears up, it must have been helicobacter. Dr. Steve Gardner (the pathologist recommended by Dr. Williams) has told my vet, Dr. Mark Burgess, that he believes heliocobacter is *way* overdiagnosed. Dr Gardner has said that he has seen only *1* case of true helicobacter on submitted pathology samples. (My guess here is that since vets routinely treat for helicobacter first, the only samples submitted to Dr. Gardner are those that don't respond to treatment, thus are not usually helicobacter.) -Carla [Posted in FML issue 2966]