>Thank you...also please let us know how this works. The discipline of >acupuncture has always worked well on our other animals, so I have good >feelings about this. Bloodtests aren't diagnostic of lympho in ferrets so the ferret may have something else which can go away on it's own like a systemic infection (which shows up the same way). There was an OLD hypothesis by Dr. Susan Brown that it MIGHT be diagnostic but from what multiple ferret expert vets ahev told me her OWN work and that of others showed that it's not specific enough. They also told me that problem of interpretation did not begin with Dr. Brown, but with others who read about it and did not separate hypothesis from known info. After such blood test results, depending on the ferret and the people involved antibiotics are sometimes tried, or a node is removed and sent to a ferret-knowledgeable veterinary pathologist for study, or first the node is pulled and then a round of antibiotics is run. I know Mary who asked about the meridians knows, but everyone else also should remember that misuse of antibiotics leads to anti-biotic resistant bacteria when discussing options. With only a blood test a ferret cannot be said to have lymphoma, esp. if classic symptoms and further suggestive tests don't exist, and certainly if a biopsy doesn't exist, as with this individual. My bet at this stage is that the little one is at least as likely to have an infection and those often simply will go away on their own if they are without acute or dangerous symptoms. I sure hope that turns out to be the case for this little one. Know that you asked about other aspects, Mary, but figured that you'd want to know this as part of your assessment, and that it could help others. ----- >When I ponder the thought of ferret smells, I will never forget the smell >of my Daisy Mai, to me she smelled exactly like a 'Hawkins Cheezie' :) When sleepy, Fritter's belly and hands smelled like the corn fritters i used to eat at the Black Horse Inn in VT during the summers of the 1960s. Warp smelled like a GOOD bakery when she was sleepy -- not one of those modern bakery smells where a lot of things are brought in or made from cheaper ingredients hidden under sugar and fat but the real thing that also is gotten when really doing flavorful from-scratch baking a lot at home. Smells are such important signals to ferrets. BTW, how many here can hear tell their ferrets apart by their smells, and by their sounds? I doubt it's unusual since we can do it despite rhinitis affecting the first and at times the second if there is a lot of swelling but don't know so am curious. ----- Fake fleece and fake fur: make sure that ferrets don't eat on those fabrics. Bed-snackers can wind up in trouble with "fur" balls that aren't really from fur (unlike most fur balls). We have had one have to have major stomach surgery due to that shedding and ingestion of the fibers. (There are always those who ask so I'll just let you know that I can't recall the exact cost but think it was around $1,300 plus or minus about $300.) Check the fabric: how easily does it come off in your hands, or in the washer when washed, or in the drier when run without heat? There is a solution, though. They can be covered with sheeting material or other material. That has other benefits since the beds also last longer then and clean far from easily. Check such bedding periodically because ferret-digging may made what was once safe no longer safe. ----- >How do I find out if there is a shelter near me in Maryland? Send the command SEND SHELTER LISTS to <[log in to unmask]>. or look in http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/ferrethealth and go down to the SOS (as from the FML) Shelter List, then open that. [Posted in FML issue 3882]