Hi, I have decided again to come out of lurking mode and bring up a couple of things that people might want to discuss further. First It's Dr. Cathy Johnson Delaney, DVM (Exotic Vet here in the Puget Sound that is doing this Adrenal Study with the Washington Ferret Rescue and Shelter. I won't even try to go into all that she and the shelter has accomplished in the past two years. I am absolutely not qualified to talk for her. The only thing I will say is I have 11 ferrets here at my house that are in the Adrenal Study. She has brought out ferrets in season with Lupron. There is no doubt in my mind that Lupron will bring back fur and shrink the vulva and prostate in MOST adrenal ferrets. There are a few that it hasn't, and my mind wonders if these are the ones that do have malignant adrenal tumors. Of course, no ones going to know unless these ferrets do have the adrenal surgery. Also, I don't care what anyone says and even before this study was done I do feel that spaying and neutering ferrets at 3-5 weeks of age is causing a lot of the health problems we are seeing in ferrets. When the vet wanted to neuter my cat at 6 weeks old. I told her absolutely not! No way would I do this. My feelings are you wouldn't spay or neuter a human at an early age if ever, why would anyone do it do an animal.. I know because of all the animals in the Cat and Dog shelters that are put to sleep everyday because they don't get adopted. Mark my word, someday this will be happening to Ferrets if the ferret mills don't quit producing so many ferrets and selling them to Petco and other Pet stores. The Ferrets shelters are not going to be able to continue taking in all the unwanted, ill ferrets and trying to take care of them till they pass over to Rainbow Bridge. Today, I got a call from one of my ferret friends that had lost her job and decided the best thing she could do was give all her ferrets back to the shelter, well this person that felt sorry for her said she'd keep the ferrets for a month till she was sure she really wanted to do this. So the ferrets ended up in this person's house. She has been having second thoughts about what she did to these ferrets that had a wonderful home before she lost her job. When she called back to get them she was informed that one of them had passed over to Rainbow Bridge, of course she now blames herself for it. Sure this ferret may have still died from insulinoma problems or symptoms that looked like it was insulinoma, but at least she would have died in hands of someone she really knew and loved her instead of a complete stranger. It really upsets me when people feel they can't take care of ferrets because they don't have the money to get their ferrets surgery and then they end up taking them to a shelter that also doesn't have the money to do the surgery for the ferrets. Then they end up passing over hopefully in a loving shelter mom's arms, but with as many ferrets that are in the shelter they may end up passing over in pain in a cage. So when this friend called, I tried to say the right things, but in my heart I also felt she did the wrong thing, and she knows she did. So now she will take her ferrets back and will try to take care of them with whatever money she can come up with. I told her she'd better keep them then no matter what, because once a ferrets gets to be a certain age it is pretty darn hard for them to find a new home. If their lucky they might get to go to a foster home, who ends up usually taking on all the expense of taking care of the ferrets. But you know, those foster homes are also be coming off hard to find. My saying is " You gotta take the good years with the bad years" and do the best you can even if its a animal and not a human child, husand or whatever is in your life that is causing you problems. I guess this is a lesson that we all need to think about including myself. Life is a growth experience and boy do some people including myself have done a lot of growing over the years, but guess I got a lot more growing to do before "GOD" calls me home. My next change is coming very soon. I have to face my husband going back to the hospital to have back surgery again, which probably will either kill him or put him in a wheel chair this time. Guess who gets to take care of him and no I won't put him in a Nursing Home even if we had the money, because I have worked in one of the best and have seen behind closed doors what happens there. So when my mother was dieing of Breast Cancer even thou my sisters and I had a hard time we did not put my mom in a Nursing Home. My sister in the end set at her bedside and watched her die. No, I couldn't go at the end to help my sister because I put my ferrets first which I always do. I always put everyone before myself. That's the caretaker way you know! This past week I got a call one of my ferret friends wants me to babysit her ferrets while she and her husband goes to California on their vacation. Well, I emailed her back and explained what my day as a "FERRET CARETAKER" is like. I said, call me if you see any time during my day that I could take care of your ferrets, I sure couldn't find any open time during my overly busy day. Well, I got a call yesterday she wants me to call her, she must have seen sometime In my busy schedule day that I could get in my car and go to her house and take care of her ferrets. Or she's going to say I will bring them to your house. Sure I have another spare room I could put them in. I can stay up and not go to bed at night and make sure her ferrets get out for their free time out of their cage, and if they were here that's exactly what I do. Plus, I also have sick ferrets that I have to take care of, I got think what diseases these ferrets could bring into my house. But you know what I am not sure I am even going to call her back. I hate saying no to people! But I can quarantee that when I need help does anyone come to my aid no way! Just one more things I want to post, Hi Bob Church! I finally took your advise I gave my ferrets raw chicken bones during their play time, even put them on a nice clean plate. The ferrets were scared of them they wouldn't even go close to them. Sure they will eat your chicken gravy, but forget the bones, the only way they will eat those bones is if they are ground up! So those bones at my house have to be ground up. Their teeth all need cleaning because they are getting older and no matter how much CET tooth paste you use if you can get it into their mouth on the brush doesn't really do that much good in my opinion. Well, I hope I haven't said to much that will make people upset at what I post, only telling what I see from my side of the world! LOL Charleen and the Wa. Tails [Posted in FML issue 4203]