Hello All, I have a couple of things I would like to run past the list to see if I'm just thinking I know too much or if it's really OK to question a vet you don't know and even a vet you love & trust. (I do recognize they're human too) The 1st situation is a pair of ferrets who came to the shelter from a very loving home. Surrenders due to divorce with owner having to move back to HI where ferrets are not allowed. I've never received such beautiful folders with surrenders before - one for each ferret, a picture on the front, every medical record inside, evidence of adrenal surgery, needle asperates, glucose levels, vaccines and one even has pet insurance. I was shocked though, when transport arrived and handed me a 4-5lb ferret, 2-3 lbs of which is Pred Belly!! This ferret had 3 insulinoma tumors removed last fall during adrenal surgery and has been on Pred ever since. He had never had any siezures. I looked at the amount of Prednisolone, .25ml 3xdaily......OK, the dosage on the bottle - 15mg/5ml......this is 3mg/ml Holy Moly this ferret is getting 2.25mg of Pred per day!! Am I nuts - or is this a LOT of Pred to start a ferret out on? I always thought start out as low as you can and increase only to what you have to to keep it controlled. His belly is rubbed bare of fur because it drags on the floor and he's been free roam - so it's not from a total lack of exercise, although he does have trouble getting around due to his size. The thing that really gets me is that there's a few vet reports of glucose levels in the file after surgery & while on the Pred & they're still all low - high 40's-mid 50's and the notes say the vet was short clipping a claw to get the blood! Makes me wonder if they knew how to get a good glucose reading or not. Talked with my shelter vet, we're going to wean him back on the dosage and keep an eye on his BG level as well as check his liver & kidney function to see if they've been effected by the dosage. Poor little guy - I think I'll put a little magic slider under his tummy to help him get around w/o getting rug burn!! I think the previous vet thought he was treating a cat!! Situation #2 - I lived in Illinois for 40+ yrs and we had ECE big time up there. We worked with it daily and I've seen my share of greenies - everything from Spinach colored projectile poop to the green, gelatinous blobs (sorry so graphic). I have not seen a case of ECE since I moved to KY 7 yrs ago. I have, however, seen a few ferrets that my vet has diagnosed as ECE. I have no veterinary education, but I just disagree. We all know that whether it be stress, a new cagemate, ulcers, IBD, it always shows up in the litter pan. You can even have green in there. But if you have a ferret with green or yellowish mucousy poops, and they live with a group of other ferrets and it doesn't spread to any of them - I don't see how this can be ECE........or at least not the same ECE I've seen in the past. The kind that they'll come down with within 48 hours from exposure, can come & go for months and which they can be carrier of for a good 12 months. So here I am - no vet education but at odds with a couple of vet decisions/conclusions........am I OK to question these things or am I wrong? Willing to admit to being wrong......I just want to be sure I do right by the ferrets in my care!! Thanks, Jerri Carel The Ferret Haven Louisville, KY [Posted in FML 5652]