Hi everyone! Hope everyone is well and had a good day. I was just wondering if anyone would like to share some first aid tips, tricks, and ideas with the rest of us that you have learned throughout the years of your experience. A friend of mine is babysitting another friend's fuzzbutt and they got into a little argument and one bit the other on his right front leg. Some blood was drawn but it was no huge deal. Luckily, she is a nurse and had some gauze and self adhering wrap and was able to bandage the poor baby before taking him straight to the vet. So, if anyone has any tips, tricks, and ideas of what items are safe for ferrets (and cats and dogs too!) it would be great to share them with us! I'm sure many of you are in a similar situation that I'm in - I live in a small town and the nearest emergency vet is an hour away. I think we all need a few things up our sleeve just in case something happens. I also think it's helpful to know what to use on a pet that you have around your house - sometimes, first aid products sold for pets are pretty much the same as ones made for humans - but they usually cost a lot more! For example, a person can go to a feed store and buy a roll of self adhering wrap for around $2 while the same thing costs $5.39 on Petco.com. I think it would be great for everyone to share their knowledge - especially about such an important topic. I recently learned how to build a good, hard splint that would work well for a ferret, kitten or cat: 1. Lay animal on it's side - with the affected leg facing up so that the animal isn't laying on the leg. 2. Gently but firmly wrap the leg in rolled gauze to make a nice padding. It should be about a 1/4th of an inch thick unless the animal is on the smaller side. Just make sure the gauze is thick enough so that the splint doesn't cause any discomfort. 3. Take 2 popsicle sticks and place them on opposite sides of the leg - usually one on the front of the leg and one on the back works well. Depending on the size of the animal, you may have to trim the sticks or find something smaller. 4. Tape the sticks down with bandage tape (or scotch tape if you don't have bandage tape handy). 5. Wrap self adhering wrap around the sticks and the gauze. If you don't have the wrap available, you can use an ace bandage. 6. Animal should be taken to the vet ASAP. Monitor splint to make sure animal (especially small animals) isn't chewing on the wrappings and possibly swallowing them. 7. If animal has any type of open wound, make sure to properly bandage it, disinfect it, and try to stop the bleeding. 8. Splints work best for sprains and pulled muscles. Do not use if the leg is obviously broken or has an open break (where bone protrudes through the skin). It's not always best to use splints on back legs as the back legs have a unique curve and structure to them - by setting them in a splint, you could do more harm than good. As for my kitty update, Sprite (the one who was limping) is now acting fine. We went to the vet yesterday we found out that Sprite had a 104 degree temp -- 3 degrees higher than normal for a kitty. He gave her a shot of pain medication and some antibiotics. She slept most of yesterday and didn't move a lot. Today, she's a little spitfire! She walks on all of her legs fine and runs and jumps. I assume the pain meds have worn off, they were given yesterday at 1:30 pm and I've never heard of pain meds lasting this long. So I'm not worried about her feeling too good because of the pain meds and overextending herself. Both kitties seem to be doing fine - they eat, drink, play, and toilet. Thanks to everyone again for your advice - especially when Pixie wouldn't eat. Thanks everyone! [Posted in FML 6646]