Hello everyone, I thought I might post an update on my 2 kids, on whose behalf I have made numerous inquiries over the past few months. They seem to be well, but my only other ferret, Pumpkin, is no longer my sole healthy ferret. She is having problems now as well, but I will get to that shortly. Zoie was diagnosed with lymphoma back in March. I started her immediately on essiac and pycnogenol, two alternative remedies reported to have a beneficial effect. An ultrasound on her abdomen a couple of months later (about a month ago) revealed that the abdominal lymph nodes had grown despite my efforts -- the gastric, portal and mesenteric nodes were each about 3 cm. So, with some hesitation, I started Zoie on the Tufts chemo protocol. I am continuing the essiac and pycnogenol. Zoie is now at week 4, and is behaving regularly. She requires hand feedings to keep her weight up, but she accepts the hand feedings without problem. She also needs the ocassional sub-q fluids, but overall she seems to be okay. I'll be surprised if she can take the whole 27 week regimen, but every week that she can tolerate is (I hope) another set-back to the lymphoma. If the chemo gets to be too much, I'll most likely discontinue and start palliative therapy (and be grateful if the chemo bought us even a month's extra time together). Valentine has had insulinoma for almost a year and a half. He was crashing back in May, but we determined that to be due to the sugars in his antibiotics (which he was taking for some nasty diarrhea). Those amoxy drops are pretty sweet, and so is the Baytril suspension. Since we got him through that, his BG has been pretty easy to control with pred and proglycem. He isn't as active as he once was, but he trots around fine when he wants to. I haven't scheduled the partial pancreactomy due to having started Zoie's chemo recently (I will have to travel to take Valentine to the experienced vet surgeon that I found). I'd like to do it this month. Zoie will probably have to come with. Now.....my poor Pumpkin hasn't gotten as much attention the past 6 months as she used to. I've noticed that she's been lethargic sometimes, but once I engaged her in play she would jump about. She's put on a fair amount of weight the past year (2 lbs. 8 oz.). Well, she wasn't much into playing the past month - and last week she crashed on me. Very weak, hyperventilating. A middle-of-the-night trip to a 24 hr. clinic showed her BG at 45. I should have caught onto this sooner. The thing is, she's been on pred (0.5 mg) and proglycem (5 mg) the past week, and while she hasn't crashed again, she also hasn't perked up much. An abdominal ultrasound in April didn't show up anything to worry about (no nodules), but she's so damn chubby it's difficult for the vet to judge her peripheral nodes. Still, her appetite is pretty good. And her stools look fine. I sure hope she's not coming down with lymphoma. I wonder if Pumpkin might be having some heart problems, and that this weight gain is edema in part. My Nikita had heart problems late in her life, but she was 8 years old. Pumpkin is 4.5 . I wouldn't have expected this, but any ferret owner should learn to expect the unexpected. I don't think my regular vet is equipped to do EKGs. Anyone know of a service in CT that does? Zoie and Valentine thank everyone for their helpful counsel over the first half of this year -- it has helped us in many ways. Pumpkin would like to be able to offer a similar appreciation for anyone who has an insight to offer us for her condition. John [Posted in FML issue 5299]