The administration of antibiotics on an empiric basis to animals that are not doing well (especially those with normal temps) may prevent a proper diagnosis from ever being made. They may mask low- grade bacterial infections, prevent bacterial cultures from ever being positive, may result in mild improvement in clinical signs only to relapse over several days, or in some cases, result in clinical signs, themselves. (Amoxicillin is fairly safe overall, although about 10% of animals receiving it will go off their food.) In general, antibiotics are only good against bacteria, and should only be employed when a bacterial infection is diagnosed. While it is difficult to be in a rescue without immediate access to a veterinarian, I generally advocate caution in the utilization of antibiotics as part of a first line therapy. SQ fluids, and a bland diet are often sufficient to maintain an animal until appropriate diagnosis can be made. With kindest regards, Bruce H. Williams, DVM, DACVP Join the Ferret Health List at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list [Posted in FML issue 3408]