Hi, all. The clinic where I used to work had a lady come in with two ferrets that a friend had given her; the "friend" claimed the ferrets were both perfectly healthy, but when the "friend" dropped them off at this lady's house, the little boy was completely naked, with two masses on his head, and the little girl has a distended abdomen. The lady begged my former clinic to take them in because her husband was going to kill them. (I think this lady needs to start hanging with a better class of people....) Anyway, here's their story: "Lillie" (both ferrets were named by my former clinic): 3-yr-old sable spayed Marshall Farms female, very sweet. Relatively healthy on PE, but with that distended abdomen-my old boss thinks it may just be an enlarged spleen, but wants to do an ultrasound to be sure. She has a back toe that was dislocated at some point and healed wrong, but causes her no problems. She has a tiny red spot on her back and a red crusty spot on her ear, but these do not seem to really be a problem. "Noodie" (my friends are really original... ;) ): The "friend" told this lady he was 8, but my boss thinks, judging by the moderate tartar on his teeth and general appearance, that he is more like 5. He is a neutered sable Marshall Farms boy. He is very naked, but really, really spunky and active and alert. He has one mass on his head that appears to be a mast cell tumor, and another that looks like a wart. He has a palpable abdominal mass, and they have separated the two today so they can monitor his urine output. He also has a heart murmur. He needs an ultrasound as well. My clinic really feels strongly that he is SO active, etc., that they want to give him the best available set of options. The little girl is a little depressed, and both are a bit malnourished and dehydrated and neglected, but they are being cared for very well right now. I am working on seeing if one of my radiologist connections will help us out with some cheap but good ultrasounds (and an echocardiogram for Noodie), and my boss can help with some "free" bloodwork in addition to fecals and UAs, but their abandoned animal fund is tapped out due to other recent rescues, and we are hoping for some help. They are in no imminent need of leaving the clinic-my old boss and coworkers are happy to care for them there, but we do need some financial assistance and would love to also find them a home where they can be together. One of my current doctors, a board-certified surgeon, has offered to do adrenal surgery, but I work for a big corporate network of clinics that already does a lot of charity work for at least four shelters, so I'm not sure how much of a break I can get on surgery costs; I have to talk to some folks today. At the very least, we'd like to start this little fellow on Lupron, and I can get injections of that for $28 or less due to the volume of ferrets my old clinic sees. Any help with maybe some bedding (sleep sacks and cuddle cups would be ideal-it's hard to hang a hammock in our hospital cages, but one or two for if they go home for awhile in a cage one of my old coworkers has would be good. Food bowls, water bottles would be nice, and some toys. I'm pretty tapped out right now myself, having just spent over $400 (WITH my discount!) on Shannon's last illness and surgery, I still have Bandit's to do, I'm carless, and I just bought all my Giving Tree stuff, but I will also do what I can. Please email me privately if you can help, as I am VERY behind on FMLs! Thanks in advance, April [Posted in FML issue 4352]