Lisa, I don't think you ranted at all. We look at the medical care of some of our ferrets and think: yep, there is the replacement carpet we didn't get, there is the new bathtub we didn't get, there is the new shower stall we didn't get, there are the wall bookcases we didn't get. I agree fully. Often enough it is a matter of priorities and saving for rainy days. When it isn't then people can look around for other area ferret vets when possible and also see about paying on time or off-setting the costs with labor or some personal sacrifices. At times even then it will be too much of a burden, but often enough there is some way to manage the care needed. I think it is incredibly cool that you stopped smoking for your ferrets, Lisa! Sherman's diet worked! We have him down to a level where he will be safe enough for surgery. I know there are too many ferrets here for folks to recall particulars of many, but he is the little short tailed rescue guy who finally had a steroid med control his IBD but it also caused a lot of weight gain. Then his R adrenal got bad. So, he had Lupron while we tried alternative IBD meds (which might as well be water for all they did), increased his exercise, and had times every day when he did not have any access to food. It worked! Unless something else bumps it he will have his surgery next week. Even now, though, with the excess fat off him he is SO much more active and happy. You should see his BOUNCE. Poor little guy has been through way too much in his life, but this will help him and meanwhile he is happy. Oh, we think he is having vision reductions, so we put a LARGE and DARK stuffed sock on a cord hung from a pole because then the fishing-line-chase game is still possible for him because he can see it. If his sight reduces more we'll scent the sock! (Scents are great for toys and for maps for a number of ferrets.) Some personal news: MS looks less likely for me. (Whew!) Though it is not eliminated as a possibility it is unlikely. We won't do a cervical MRI unless I get new problems which could be neurological, partly because that might not be useful in and off itself, anyway, given a prior problem which may have scarred my spinal cord. My ankle x-rays now show almost the picture they should instead of a 90' rotation from the norm. (I hadn't realized they were that bad but then they showed my x-rays from 12 weeks ago with an A-P (anterior - posterior) view on x-rays taken from the side.) We've added sleeping braces, and tomorrow I begin PT several times a week since ligaments and tendons need stretching and in some cases, like with the Achilles encouragement to reposition a bit. Oh, and luckily the "rolling marbles" sensation I'd begun having was soft tissue instead of chips from bones moving around, good because such fractures can occur and not even be noticed due to being in the noise with such problems. After being missing for something like 4 or 5 years we found the glasses Ashling stole hidden high up under things in an open wooden box on a tall piece of furniture we didn't even know she could scale. It is SO good to find those! I guess it is only right that they couldn't be found until after she had passed away. Life-long successes are important. It emphasizes that she really is gone, which is sad, but also makes us proud of how strong and smart she was, and how lucky we were to share life with her. Sue, hopefully her diabetes is temporary. It is not terribly unusual for a temporary diabetes to happen post-surgically. There is a lot on this in both the archives of the FML and FHL: http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html , and http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org . Test again and best of luck! [Posted in FML issue 4455]