Hi Everyone: One week ago I lost my beloved Jake, and I don't know what happened. He was 5 1/2. I went away for Christmas and boarded my 2 babies with an experienced ferret person. Jake developed diarrhea after being there for about 6 days and was given Pepto. I picked him up 2 days later and he improved for a few days and then started again with the diarrhea again. We all thought it was stress-related, and he was put on Flagyl for 5 days. The Flagyl didn't seem to help, and he was losing weight and some hair. (All this time, he was eating, drinking and playing.) I started with duck soup and had a blood sugar test done at the shelter where I adopted him from when he began to show hind-end weakness. The test results were consistent with insulinoma, so we immediately started him on Prednisone and Carafate. I took him to a ferret vet 2 days later to confirm the diagnosis and because I was worried because he was getting dehydrated. The vet gave him fluids and told me to continue with the prednisone. He thought the diarrhea may be ECE related, and we both thought he was having a recurrence of adrenal disease because of his losing hair. He palpated Jake and the only thing noted was what the vet thought was a swollen lymph gland in the abdomen. He said that would be expected with having diarrhea for 3 weeks. He had a temp of 103. The fecal exam showed the presence of some minimal bacteria (colustridium or something like that). The vet decided not to repeat the Flagyl since it didn't help much and Jake hated it. We went home, and 36 hours later, he was dead. I found him in the morning, he had died in his sleep. I was shocked and devastated beyond belief. No one, including the vet, thought he was that sick. I got the results of the bloodwork from the vet that same day. His blood sugar was ok, probably because of the prednisone, but his liver enzymes were elevated. The vet said that could be consistent with ECE. I asked him if what he felt in Jake's abdomen could have been lymphoma and he didn't think so, said it was too small. He didn't have any explanation for me. I am so heartbroken and depressed about this. He was my first ferret. His cagemate has showed no symptoms of any kind. I have been racking my brains trying to figure out what happened, and torturing myself thinking about what ifs. I don't know what else I could have done, but blame myself anyway. Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone have any ideas? He was fine until about 12/26 and died on 1/17, it was so fast. I weighed him at the vets and he had gone from 2.8 lbs (Aug 2002) to 1.6 lbs. He had a left adrenal tumor removed in August. Any help/comments would be welcomed. Thank you. Leanne - Heartbroken and Missing My Baby Jake [Posted in FML issue 4037]