Last week I mentioned that doing blood and other tests on ferrets was most helpful, and even though it added to the expense at the time, could save money in the long run. I should have added, it may also save your ferrets life. Last week I had a simple urinalysis done showing Buddy has a urinary tract infection. On the suggestion of my vet, she had a culture done. This resulted in identifying the TWO types of bacteria, one being extremely nasty. My vet has seen it only one other time in her years of practice. This helped her make the right antibiotic choice, as well as the duration of treatment, two weeks longer than originally prescribed. Since Buddy's health is compromised with heart/kidney problems, this bug may have been his death sentence had it not been caught early on. Buddy was eating well, no fever, NO symptoms at all, other than I noticed him shivering as if chilled, even though the house temp was 76*. So.... if your vet recommends certain tests be run, I highly recommend it. The unknown becomes known, and just maybe a little ferret will be around awhile longer. For those that wish to research the bug it is acinetobacter calcoaceticus-baumannii. Heartfelt thanks to Sukie, our researcher with a passion to help, for sending me days worth of URL's to look up. Ardith [Posted in FML issue 4649]