Well, we had our first real scare with our first ferret, 6 month old Accolon. Yesterday me and his "daddy" had the day off, so we took him to the beach because it was nice. Later that night, around 6:00, we noticed he was having some sort of problem breathing or he was trying to throw up. He would make a gasping sound every minute or two, and was sort of twitchy.. as in, slight convulsions pretty much constantly. I kept an eye on him for a while.. other than that, he seemed normal.. drinking, peeing and pooping normally, wanting to play, etc.. except for what seemed to me to be dry heaves. So, finally around 9:00 we went online to find one of the many phone numbers I've heard of to call with questions, couldn't find any, so we looked at some ferret first aid web pages. We looked under convulsions and it recommended giving him a bit of Karo syrup.. it didn't seem to be a sugar-related seizure, but we tried it anyway.. we tried giving him water out of a cup in case he wasn't getting enough from the bottle. Finally I remembered the MaFF website has a list of shelters, and a friend of mine said she had called Jo Fowler frequently with questions. I couldn't remember what shelter she was from, so I ended up calling Luv of Ferrets. Well, the woman I talked to (not sure if it was Jo Fowler or not) was wonderful and suggested giving him a gob of Vaseline (we didn't have any Petromalt or anything) in case he ingested sand, and Benadryl in case he got bit by something. After running out to CVS at 10:00 to buy Benadryl and a medecine dropper, he got much better, thanks to the help we received from the shelter. So, I'd just like to say thanks to the people there at Luv of Ferrets for helping a worried new mommy with the sweet baby Accolon and his first medical problem. : ) - Rachel, Doug, and Ack members.aol.com/Raidra/ferret.htm [Posted in FML issue 2991]