Would it help most to change this into a ferret proofing discussion? Many, perhaps most, of us have had times when we've had to have ferrets caged due to illness, but there is also the basic reality that ferrets are ***beings*** rather than possessions and therefore we have responsibility for their happiness and health, too, a responsibility we ***chose*** to assume by making them family members. I know that during the 18 months when i was walking around in braces, and even more the bad months before then when I could walk only by leaning on walls and cane, that things here were NOT optimal, BUT WE DID FIND COMPROMISES, so the ferrets might not have had ideal situations but they certainly had reasonable ones. I was in bad enough pain that I constantly shook and lost considerable weight from pain (and wish I had kept it off) despite barely moving around. Granted, i have a wonderful, wonderful husband (married 27 years) so Steve did a huge amount of work, but still we had to get creative to find ways to protect the ferrets and me. Easy? Not really. Possible? Yes. Necessary? Yes. To me what all this says is that everyone could once again be helped by discussions of ferret proofing tips and barrier tips. Besides, I love those topics. Even after over a quarter century with ferrets in the family I wind up usually hearing something new to learn about and think about when those topics come up! Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html Sukie (not a vet) [Posted in FML 5749]