L, NO ONE knows long-distance when it is time to get a mercy shot for a ferret for whom the vets and family are able to provide quality life. Over the years we went through that garbage ourselves with two people who decided to badger us badly with different ferrets, and one who was less-so. ONLY those close to the animal and know the individual know when it is time to seek a mercy shot. In the most recent situation where we were getting those mails I'd read one of those things from someone who figured that she knew what what going on and it would be such an echo in content of early mails from a man who used to tell us that in relation to another happy ferret. Why? Because I'd read those "You are being selfish" mails and then I would look at the ferret who was the subject of them and she'd be happily playing and having grand old time. Honestly, with this most sensitive of all topics, it's a time for folks to know when to be mum about some aspects for someone else's ferret whom we do NOT know and whose situation we do NOT know. We can tell about what changes led each of us to choose mercy shots and when, but to tell another to give one is over the line in my way of thinking. Frankly, if a ferret show interest in life we give that ferret a chance. Mother Jones once wrote: "Pray for the dead but fight like hell for the living." and that is the way many folks do things. There were a LOT of very interesting viewpoints on this in some discussions I guess about 3 months or so ago, and the topic has periodically come up. It would pay to read those past discussions first. Just go to the FML address given earlier in this post and in the header of every day's FML. Also, there have been some past successes for ferrets with pacemakers. Pacemakers do not cause insulinoma. Insulinoma does not cause body fur loss (but adrenal disease does, and shaving does, and some ferrets -- this is rare -- lose body fur from any great stressors). There are a number of non-sequetors in the post. I would also suggest that as well as reading up on heart disease, insulinoma, and adrenal neoplasia that you read up on blindness, Vision is NOT the primary not even the secondary sense for ferrets, and most who are blind cope so well that the people take quite some time to even realize that the ferret is blind. There are also ways to do scent mapping for ferrets which you will find when you learn about blindness in ferrets. (Okay, I'm annoyed, but telling another when to get a mercy shot is one of my hot buttons because of the absolutely cold and callus foolishness I've personally encountered with outsiders making such statements. Those posts often are about the most needlessly that hurtful a person can get.) There are SO MANY hurtles that are surmountable. It always amazes me that folks don't realize that there simply ARE at times approaches they themselves haven't yet heard of, or when folks assume that certain meds are bad (pain meds for instance which do NOT make an animal groggy when used right) when really if the meds are used right the result is real and wonderful quality of life. BTW, we have a type of warming pad which is heated in the microwave which we have found wonderful for ferrets and there are instructions for rice bags and hot water bottles in both the FML and FHL Archives (addies earlier in post). Sounds you might mean AV Heart Node Block. Seven had that as a result (not cause) of her insulinoma, which seems to be the common way for ferrets to get it. We looked into pacemakers but there were reasons which made her not a candidate. Info on AV Heart Node Block can be found at the archives mentioned and at http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/ferrethealth/heartblock.txt [Posted in FML issue 4391]