Jerri, vets are to be respected for their knowledge, education, & experience, but they do not walk on water. As for the ECE--to ME, the telltale sign is that the stench is so horrible it would gag a maggot. LOL. ECE REEKS. Other stuff is green, but ECE really reeks. As for the pred, we always start with the lowest effective dose. This may not be practical for those who have to go away to work. They couldn't monitor the ferret. But we can/do/ and have the meds on hand, in the rare event of a crash. Not one of our insulinomic babies has a pred belly--and most live 2-3 years on prednisolone, following diagnosis. (Because we are a sanctuary, we are able to follow the cases clear through to the end.) In past years, I have doubted/questioned some different vets on the following issues that come to mind. 1. A vet tried to send me home with metacam for an insulinomic boy in pain, who was on pred. I looked at him & said "Metacam & PRED????" He backed down, remembering how that combination would have torn the ferret's stomach up. The vet wasn't angry, thinking I had shown disrespect. He simply answered "I'm glad you caught that" 2. One of our girls was extremely pale & lethargic. The Xray looked good, but the PCV was only at 12% The vet said that most likely, she had a bone marrow issue. He discussed options. Chemo for $2000-$3000, etc---but stated that probably the most humane thing to do was to euthanize her. I told him he was probably right, but that I had a gut feeling, & wanted to take her home.(I believed maybe the blood loss might be from a bleeding ulcer...) Figuring we had nothng to lose, I put her on carafate, pet tinic, .5 cc's twice a day, amoxi drops, 25 cc's LRS, twice a day, and what we call "Synder soup" here. (Named after the little fertie we saved.) I fed this soup, every three hours around the clock. In a week, her color was returning. In two weeks, she was terrorizing the other ferrets again. In three weeks, her weight was returning. A month later, I returned with her to the vet. He said it was a miracle. Synder lived another wonderful 1 1/2 years. She danced, dooked, & ate toes. She hid her toys & played happily. She would have been stopped short, had I listened to the vet (who is an exotic specialist) 3. Pinky had the largest chordoma we had ever SEEN, when she came to us. When our vet at the time amputated the end of her tail, he instructed us to leave the pressure bandage on until the stitches came out, because it had bled a lot. WELLLLL--with the circulation cut off for that long, the end of her tail turned black & she developed dry gangrene. NOT GOOD. (Here's one where I should have listened to my guts....) 4. Years ago, we had a baby who was not eating. Had no energy at all. He lost a great deal of weight in only three days' time. We suspected a blockage, but that was ruled out. The vet did blood work, and the hematacrit was up a bit, but all else looked normal. The vet had no answers as to why the fert wouldn't eat & was so sick. Told us to just take him home & love him---that sometimes these things just happen. After ALL, he WAS eight years OLD! I was holding him on the couch, and something told me to look in his mouth. OBOY. A MOUTH ulcer!!! BIG one!!! It would have hurt TERRIBLY to eat, with that thing in his mouth! So after $380. worth of Xrays & tests, I gave some fluids, put together some pepcid suspension, & our boy was eating soup all by himself, the next day. He made a full recovery. The vet had never even thought to look in his mouth. The cost of making him comfortable & saving his life was under a dollar. LOL. Gut feelings should always be respected. They're there for a reason. We have a great relationship with all our vets now. None of us walks on water. None of us pretends to. We just want to help the ferrets. Love, Zoo [Posted in FML 5653]