I was at the symposium and returned around 1am Tues I let all my ferrets out. When I took out Sam, I could tell he was ill. The sitters report that they did not notice any thing wrong with Sam, he was playing and active. Last visit Mon, mid-afternoon. Sam was a 3yr old neutered Peterson's neutered male. He was not ill last Wed night late. He initially presented with significant dehydration. wobbly when walking. When I weighed him Tues morning he had lost 100 gms from the previous week. I took him to the vet Tues morn. He received 50cc fluids subq and then she put him on an IV at 2cc/hr. He weaker, stopped eating on his own took Carnivore care & turkey baby food. On Wed he became significantly jaundiced. Blood work on Tues indicated bilirubin with hemolysis, acute renal failure, elevated creatine and BUN. anemia. He had repeat blood work on Wed and the following values rapidly worsened, T Bil, BUN, Creatine, Phos. He had decreased PCV. TP on Tues was >10d but went to normal at 6.8 the next day after hydration. She thought perhaps AIHA (autoimmune ? anemia) but did not do a Coombs test(no time), Ultrasound was done and the gall bladder and liver were clear, kidneys very white. Liver was swollen but had good margins. On Wed his heart had paroxysmal tachycardia, not present on Tues. US of heart showed this as well. Necropsy was done and she sent samples of the right kidney, liver, messentary, deuodenum (sp?) and the whole heart. Results will be back in a couple of weeks. Visual was the organs were yellow, liver was discolored, she said it looked gray. She made the comment that everything looked swollen when she made the first incision and started to pull out organs. Also of note he had a small, dime sized, irregular shaped foreign body in his stomach, this piece had a very sharp point on one side. The object appeared to be a very dark purple plastic something. What we don't know, I have been unable to find the rest of this even after much searching of the room he shared with his buddy. The vet said this had not been present for long in his body because of it's appearance and the location and she said it would have caused him major problems had it traveled any further. We don't know what this is, therefore, don't know if it could have had some toxic substance on it but I can say I do not have poisons in my house, there are no household cleaners in that room. Nothing new has been introduced in many weeks. We are stumped, hoping the pathology will reveal a cause but I am posting to see if anyone else has had a similar experience. If so please email me. I am cross-posting this Ann Hehl [Posted in FML 5655]