Dear June: >WE had a ferret show up at work yesterday, symptoms...pale mucous >membranes, weak, swollen looking skin appeared to be bruised . awake, >but barely responsive. could NOT get blood, veins kept collasping, >finally cut a toenail, blood was kool aid like. He was not bleeding out >of anywhere, he died within the hour. He was 1 year old and came from a >local pet shop. DOES ANYONE have any idea, my vet is stumped and we are >concerned that the other ferrets he was housed with may come down with >this.. Tough to make a comment on this one - sounds like an aplastic anemia. Without bloodwork, everything is just a guess. A CBC helps to identify the cause. However, blood as thin as this indicates a very severe problem, and even with a transfusion, the prognosis would be grave. Aplastic anemia is common in unspayed females, but uncommon otherwise. In young ferrets, I would first think about a bleeding gastric ulcer (did you do a post?) Otherwise you can think about leukemia, an idiosyncratic reaction to a medication, and severe flea infestation. I am hopeful that a post was done - this is a very unusual case. With kindest regards, Bruce Williams, dVM [Posted in FML issue 3317]