I was asked to post more about Odo, the ferret that came to me with chemical burns on his body, so here is his story. On Feb 25th, 2001 i was asked to rescue a couples ferrets because they were moving and couldn't take their ferrets. We had been playing phone tag for about a week and I was getting concerned about the ferrets , but on that day I finally got to go pick up Odo and his brother Spooky. I arrived at a nice apartment complex and found where they were, the wife and father and her 2 children were packing up and moving. The hubby was not there because he was moving some of the furniture in a truck. I was greeted by a 5 yr old girl, covered with dirt, markers, and looked ragged. Now I have a kid and this was not from one day. she showed me the apt., when i entered the aptt, there was a child sleeping in a pile of trash, filthy as his sister, maybe about 2 yrs old. He also had a major gash on his face, which I was told was from a razor blade accident. It was very close to his eye. The apt was filthy, words can not describe what I had walked into. It was making me sick. i spotted the ferret cage as it was very large, in the cornor of the living room. The cage had 2 ferrets in it, a sable and an albino. There was a food dish in there with kitten chow in it, and a water bottle with some water in it. Thats the good news. The cage was filled with poop, 2 overflowing litterboxes, and poop everywhere. No hammys, just one small kitchen towel that was filthy. Their toys consisted of cigarette butts, a plastic fork, tongs up, and trash. When the cage was pulled away from the wall, a mountain of trash fell down. i was informed that there were 3 ferrets but one died of adrenal dz, but them later she told me she was found with her head through a hole in a towel and they think she strangled to death. Who knows? At his point I examined the ferrets, Odo the sable male is about 6 yrs old, thin, and raw skin on 1/3 of his left side and raw between his hind legs. she said she thought he had bugs or something. Spooky, the albino is a male about 5 yrs old, thin, and he had a tumor on his rt paw that was open and bleeding everywhere. at this point I wanted out before i could do or say something stupid and have them not give me the ferrets. I loaded up the filthy cage, poop and all. I put the ferrets in a carrier. as I was leaving i saw another small cage with a hamster in it, i asked to take it also, but was told it was a flushable pet, don't worry about it. and they had a cat that they were going to breed, now I'm really wanting out. The little girl was in my truck saying goodbye to the ferrets and was very sad, she gave me instructions on taking care of them and to make sure I loved them, she was going to miss her friends. i brought Odo and Spooky to the vet the next day. The Dx on Odo is: malnutrition, heart disease, adrenal and what she believes is a chemical burn on his body. We also found out he has insulanoma. He is on Pred, Lasix, and salve for his burns. Spooky was a little better, not as thin, has to have the tumor removed, insulanoma, but otherwise fine. But, now is the big problem, they refuse to eat anything. I have to force feed them both, which they hate. Odo is going to the vet today as he is throwing up. As sad as it is, i think they miss their family. if they never knew what a good life was, then they probably believe that they were living it. They are with my hospice mom Brenda and she can perform miracles, and they need it. please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. I want them to actually live a happy and fun life before they cross the rainbow bridge. I have video of them and their cage, but no pics. when I can figure out how to put video on my website I will do that. BTW, Odo's burns are healing up great and now has scabs where the burns were the worst. I'll keep you all posted on their progress. Take care, CJ 24 Carat Ferret Rescue And Shelter "where ferrets are treated like gold" Visit us at: http://www.geocities.com/a_24k_ferret/ [Posted in FML issue 3359]