I feel a little guilty asking for advice from the list, since I rarely have time to read it or post to it anymore, but I'm desperate! The people on this list have been such a valuable source of useful information in the past, I can't think of any place to turn for advice. In fact, the ferret for whom I need help was adopted by me through this list. He's a sweet, enthusiastic boy with a wonderful personality. So here goes, guilt and all! URINARY TRACT BLOCKAGE is the problem. Poor little Beuhler was rushed to the vet on January 8th because he was crying in pain and couldn't urinate. Beuhler is approximately 4 years old and has always been extremely active and healthy until this point. The vet relieved him by emptying his bladder with a needle. This was a Saturday, so Beuhler stayed in the hospital over the weekend - where they continued to relieve him with a needle - then he had surgery on Monday, Jan 10th. The surgery revealed *over 50* stones, large and small, in his bladder! (I later saw the x-ray, and his little bladder looked like a bag of marbles!) The vet removed the stones, catheterized his urethra, and stitched him up. He came through the surgery just fine, and the catheter was removed on Tuesday. He was able to excrete some urine on his own, and he gradually resumed his normal eating and drinking habits. He came home on the following Tuesday, January 18th. I was instructed to feed him only his regular food (Totally Ferret), no treats, and administer Baytril tablets twice daily (I forget the dosage) for three weeks. The stones were sent away to a lab at the University of Minnesota for analysis. To date, the results have not yet come back. He was urinating 6 - 8 drops at a time, which gradually improved to about 12 - 16 drops at a time, but then leveled off there. Each time he woke up, he had to make several trips to the litter box to get the job done. Beuhler went back to his vet for a check-up on Jan 31st, and was given an additional week's dosage of Baytril because his urination was not yet back to normal. The vet wondered if his kidney function might be impaired, so we made another appointment for Feb 25th, when the vet drew blood for follow-up blood test. The results came back last Monday (Feb 25th) with flying colors - his kidneys and liver appear to be functioning perfectly. But this past week, Beuhler seemed to have more difficulty urinating. This morning, he was clearly straining, and could only get out a few drops, which were cloudy. By mid-day, he was clearly uncomfortable, so I called my vet's office. My vet, unfortunately for Beuhler, is in Alaska as an attending vet for the Ititerod, and won't be back until mid-March. So this afternoon (Saturday) we went to the emergency clinic, upon the recommendation of my regular vet's office, where there was a vet with ferret experience. The vet couldn't catherterize Beuhler's urethra from the outside, and tried to flush the external end of it, but that didn't alleviate the problem. The vet emptied Beuhler's bladder with a needle to temporarily relieve him, gave him an antibiotic injection, and sent him home with a bottle of Amoxi - in the hope that the blockage is caused by an infection rather than stones. Before we left, the vet also did a urinalysis and showed me the test tube - the bottom was filled with sediment. So, right now, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!! Beuhler was happy to get home and ran around the house for a little while - trying, unsuccessfully, to urinate in each litter box he encountered. He climbed back into his cage and went to sleep, where he is curled up in his hammock now as I write this. If Beuhler still can't urinate on his own tomorrow, what do I do? If his bladder is filling up again with crystals again, is there any point in prolonging his ordeal? (I wish the darned results were back from the lab with the analysis of the stones, that might indicate some dietary change that could help him in the long term.) But what do I do for now? Keep taking him back to the vet for relief by a needle? Is there anything else to be done? Take him to another vet for a second opinion? (I'm in Northern New Jersey - any vet recommendations?) Are there any herbal or wholistic treatments for this? If any of you have any advice, please email me privately. Beuhler needs immediate help, or an end to his ordeal - the thought of which has me sitting here crying, so I'll sign off now. Thank you for bearing with me to read this. Sincerely, Nancy Farlow [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 2980]