>BUT--- when the dumper is saying that he or she is going to immediately >go out and get another pet -- then THAT needs to be addressed, for moral >reasons if nothing else. I agree. We have also here had some posters who repeatedly "got rid of" ferrets, then did NOT change the reasons why they dumped the ferrets (lack of money for health care, allergies, lack or space, lack of time, spouse or roommate hates them, kids are too rough, can't deal with the smell/digging/litterpots/costs/etc.) THEN went out asking for or acquiring more. That actually can fit into the profile of an animal hoarder. Most animal hoarders have many animals but some are obsessive/compulsive about having animals even if only a few when they are unable to care of them. Yes, some just want to have everything their own ways (immature and expecting to be spoiled) and to "get rid of" the sick ones and keep only the healthy ones so those folks just need to grow up, and some have animals dumped on them when they don't have the ability to care for them as happened to me when I was young so I had to find an alternative for her, and some caring folks simply have the circumstances of like make one specific situation untenable, but some such folks actually are emotionally ill and need help in that regard while not having animals they can harm. The good points are that 1. the immature ones can grow up over time as they try, 2. the ones who aren't able to care for an animal or animals dumped on them whether or not due to changes in circumstances usually care enough to find an alternate home, and 3. the folks who are mentally ill are in a small minority and with gentle nudging from concerned individuals may seek help for themselves. BTW, only one state (IL) has laws against animal hoarding (and other states can use that as a template), so PLEASE don't wait on this: get the info in the following sites to your state's political figures: Political-health things: http://www.fda.gov/cvm/index/ade/pharmacobrochure.pdf (federal reporting of adverse veterinary drug reactions), http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/legislat/awa.htm (animal welfare act) and http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/publications.html (fed. regulations and more), http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding.html, and http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/MunicipaLawyer.pdf , and http://www.legis.state.il.us/publicacts/pubact92/acts/92-0454.html, and http://www.mhsource.com/pt/p000425.html (hoarding and how it hurts animals) Was pathology done on the cysts? That is going to be the only way to get an idea how much of a chance the little one has. There are a LOT of things which simply can't be told from gross examination and therefore require pathology to be run. BTW: Here's some good info on liver tests: Confusion and Controversy in Interpreting Ferret Clinical Pathology Data in http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html >Is there a website that I can look at to find out exactly how long >contagion is possible with each of the contagious ferret diseases? >Such as the adrenal one and the ECE and any others? For ECE go to the AFIP site above. I belive that you have confused adrenal growths with ADV; for some reason multiple people have recently suddenly done that. There must have been something confusing in a different list or elsewhere. ADV (AD) is Aleutian Disease Virus -- NOT adrenal -- and info can be found at http://www.ferret-universe.com/health/adv.html#test http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/files/unitedceptest.pdf http://www.avecon.com, http://www.geocities.com/russiansmom/ http://www.geocities.com/wolfysluv/adv-straight.html, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/advferret/ among other places which I am sure others will readily list. >This is why herbal medicine is so slow to catch on. I strongly agree! I think that if herbal meds had more oversight so that folks could be sure of things like amounts, and if they included inserts on uses, hypothetical uses, cautions, side effects, and counter-indications that they would be more widely used. How many folks actually spring for references like we do? Not many. Then folks have bad experiences which could have been avoided if they had the info they needed up front. Thanks for giving the refs. They sound like they are from 1999 on like mine are, too, mostly. When my budget allows I'll be getting them, too. Right now, I've saved the info. Meanwhile, I expect that you will find the counter-indication (medical conditions, other meds, etc.) info in the ones I mentioned to be of use, too. After all, most poisons in the world are also naturally occurring ones, and what is or is not poison can be dependent on the animal species, dose, etc. We use herbs, too, but Steve and i do find it a royal nuisance that so much of the literature does NOT contain cautions, counter-indications, and such even though they are ESSENTIAL. [Posted in FML issue 3875]