I noticed this commented on about some ferrets in Utah, and thought I would post, as a comparison...I have/had two ferrets diagnosed with IBD. One, she was 6 and also had insolinoma (in fact through her insolinoma surgery she was diagnosed with IBD), she was pretty bad off as far as the IBD goes, she went on immuram but died after 10 months (NOT insolinoma-related). The other, he was 5 1/2 when he was diagnosed, he had had adrenal surgery and a GI biopsy. His case was milder, he went on immuram (and later octagol b/c of liver hepatitis), and has been on these meds for almost 3 years. He is so much healthier and happier than my first, he has shown no sign of muscle wasting, his energy level has not decreased, he continues to eat/drink/poop/play, in fact I am beginning to suspect he is slowly being transformed into a SuperFerret. He is now 7 1/4 years old. Anyway, these two would qualify as case studies, but it appeared that early detection in Mr. SuperFerret (his real name is Linus) greatly improved his quality of life. My older ferret (she was a year older than Linus, her name was Zooey), did not benefit from early detection. In fact, once I knew what was wrong with her, I just knew it had been bothering her for years. None of the other vets ever had a clue. She was always the one most bothered by stress, even though half the time she seemed to be enjoying it (such as moving, she loved to explore the various boxes, etc.). She was always the one who needed some form of antibiotic to help her get over diahrrea. IN FACT, since she was my first ferret, I just thought all ferrets needed that help, because she did. And none of my previous vets ever knew what else was wrong with her, so they never suggested perhaps my treating all the ferrets like her was over-treating them because she was actually sick. Anyway, it took 'til she was 6 years old and showing clear signs of an already established ferret disease, insolinoma, before i could get her to a vet that was researching IBD and recognized the signs. It isn't that widely known, but in my two cases, it was clearly a disease that needed treatment. Zooey wasted away her last year, the medications came too late for her. Sorry I didn't mean for that to be so long, but basically wanted to reaffirm what the post from Utah was saying...IBD is a serious disease that should be "laughed" off as a "fad". Minta 7 the ferrets [Posted in FML issue 3886]