Hey guys, We need some help/advice. We have a little boy ferret (5 years old) who was recently diagnosed with bladder stones. One morning he could not relieve himself and was in terrible discomfort so we rushed him in immediately. The Dr. took x-rays, which turned up literally hundreds of small bladder stones, so they made him comfy and scheduled him for surgery the following morning to remove and flush them out. The pre-surgery blood work showed nothing out of the ordinary aside from his blockage problem. The vet also did an exploratory to see what else was going on in his tummy and his adrenals and pancreas looked just fine. He came though the surgery like a little trooper, thank God. Well, we just got the stone analysis back and they were Cystine stones... and from what I've been told are a reoccurring type. I understand that a low protein and low salt diet is needed, but how does a ferret stay healthy with a low protein diet? I'm feeding him Hills S/D at the moment and that's very low protein (11% minimum). Anyone out there with the same experience with these types of stones? From what I understand, this is not very common among ferrets and there's no real treatment to prevent future episodes. We really don't want to put our little guy through another cystotomy. Any help would be greatly appreciated! You can contact us at: [log in to unmask] Thanks, Mom, Dad, the Weasels (Jigger, Bandit, MeeMoe & Nibs) and the little Angels (Digger & Scamps) [Posted in FML issue 3806]