Another sign on the bulletin board at work-"2 ferrets, free to good home. 4 year old female, 5 year old male" So, me being me, I made the phone call. Girl getting married, fianc=E9 got an apartment that didn't allow ferrets. She'd raised both of the kids from babies, but was giving them up. Right now they were with a couple of vet students. Talked to my husband and he said to have them come to us. So on a rainy afternoon in the middle of February "F" and Penelope, aka Nelly, came to live with us. F is a sable boy, Nelly a beautiful silver mitt girl. Girl brought them in, I introduced her to the rest of the Crew of Merry Mayhem and told her I had 3 adrenal surgeries coming up in March. She couldn't wait to get out of the house, and after she was gone I found out why. I was cuddling each of them in turn, Nelly was on her back and I see this huge, swollen vulva. Okay, 4 adrenal surgeries in March. March 13 dawned and Nelly, Jill, Fang, and Conan all had adrenal surgeries, Alix had a mast cell tumor removed. Nelly and Jill were close to complete adrenalectomies. Jill's right is embedded in the vena cava and encapsulated, so the vet got as much as he could. Nelly's adrenal was encapsulated and laying on top of the vena cava, so he took almost all of it, and the left. He felt he'd left enough to keep her off prednisone. Fang was on her 2nd adrenal, and we thought maybe the right was bad. It was a little enlarged, but not enough to have caused all the hair loss and the continued swollen vulva. Turned out she had an ectopic left adrenal! So out went that. Conan had a huge left, and ectopic, so that all came out, and Alix was the easiest. All the kids came through with flying colors, and all were feeling fine. Last night about 10:30pm I let the group Nelly and F are in out, and she fell over. She'd lost all her weight, was severely dehydrated. I knew there was no ferret vet at the clinic, just interns, so every hour on the hour I was giving her sugar water for glucose-I don't have any sub q fluids, but will try to from now on. The vets got in at 8 this morning, and we had a 10 am appointment. We got there, and she'd lost all the fluids I'd given her. So she was put onto sub q's, bloodwork, you name it was being done. Got a call at 12:45 pm, and Nelly had crossed to the Rainbow Bridge. I don't know whose more upset right now, my husband, me, the vet who did the surgery, or the vets at the clinic. They told me her kidney readings were off the charts, and that she might have had some problem before surgery. So I'm having a necropsy run, and then I'll get her back for cremation, and she'll go in the memory box with the others. Sandee-please watch out for a beautiful silver mitt girl. Please have Socks, Bailey, Suzy, and Nibbles meet her. She never knew them, they were here and gone before she arrived, and I know she'll be nervous by being alone. Tell her I'm sorry I didn't get to tell her about the Bridge, tell her I'm so sorry she didn't get to come back home this time. I'm so torn up over this-I feel like I should have done more. Nelly, Nelerpee, Penelerpe, my other little silver girl is gone. I have to sit and talk to F because she won't be there to cuddle with him. He's still depressed over being shuffled around, and now he'll have an even harder time. I wish I knew what more I could have done for her, what went wrong. I'm sorry-I have things in my eyes right now and can't see the screen and I know I'm rambling. Sandee-please watch for her. Rebecca & the sad Crew of Merry Mayhem "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and taste good with ketchup" "Support bacteria, it's the only culture some people have" [Posted in FML issue 3738]