update on sid the ferret: 330 am, sunday the panting and red toepads went away as soon as i got the room cooled down a bit. electric bill bedamned, i have gone ahead and turned on the air for the sake of keeping his system as low-stress as possible. i gave him some hairball treatment around eight, and he ate a small baby food jar full of duck soup around eleven, and shortly after that, he fired off a fairly normal poop, with no non-poop type matter in it, and peed a good puddle. he has peed once since then that i have witnessed. he is also drinking water. his abdomen is still bloated, but has not increased in size in the past three hours, since i took a measurement so i would be able to tell for sure if there were any changes. he is not weak or stumbling at all... he's acting pretty much like his usual self, other than not seeming to really want to drag the extra mass around much. at this point, he is at least stable. thanks to all of you for your suggestions. updates will be forthcoming. -kat- addendum: 209 pm, sunday: when i got up at 1 pm (i'm not lazy, i just work an afternoon-night shift), there was more poop in the cage, so what goes in is definitely coming out. he ate another 2.5 oz jar of soup around one, and is eating kibble if i hand him the individual pieces, but seems happy to have yummy soup and not-so-interested in kibble unless i hand it to him (then it's a treat, of course!) abdomen was the same time when measured at 1 pm that it was last night, maybe a centimeter smaller in diameter. no sign of pain or undue straining when poop/peeing. if his condition deteriorates today, i will likely run him to an excellent 24-hour clinic that i have discovered is about 1.5 hours from my house. if he seems to be remaining stable, i will take him to my regular vet on monday for further analysis. thanks for your concern, -kat- ===== ,',', __ \ `'`,/ \ ()o=; `'`','`/ . \/ / ( / \" / \(_ \(_ ferrets may nip, but people just suck. [Posted in FML issue 3725]