*****Remember with thrombosis that there will be an UNDERLYING CAUSE. Usually it is heart disease (commonly either cardiomyopathy or A/V node block), but it can be kidney disease, lymphoma, or some other things. The underlying cause need treatment.***** Additional things that some people have assumed were stroke but were not include but are not limited to: ADV (Aleutian Disease Virus), Canine Distemper, serious inner ear infection, meningitis, insulinoma, back injury, upper spinal chordoma, and more... You can find quite a bit in the FML and FHL archives including http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG11338 which includes this from Dr. Bruce Williams, one of the world's renowned experts on ferret pathology and on telemedicine: >Regarding the theory of stroke - this is really not a problem >in ferrets - stroke is most often seen in species with chronic >cardiovascular disease such as atherosclerosis, such as humans >and certain inbred species of animals, but not ferrets. http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG11396 http://ferrethealth.org/archive/SG4576 in http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG3833 Dr. Williams also says: >To my knowledge, strokes have never been diagnosed in ferrets - nor >have I ever seen evidence of intracranial hemorrhages in ferrets. "Stroke" is one of those words some people use too loosely in relation to ferrets, like "colds", with the results being health care problems in both cases. We HAVE had two ferrets with thromboses in our 28+ years with ferrets (not sure how many any longer). One had a mercy shot the same day that she threw one to her brain (her third thrown clot) but not because of that clot but instead because of a thrombosis (thrown clot) in her kidney from the day before which refused to dissolve so she had no chance. She had heart disease. The other had only one thrombosis and his was due to kidney disease. It was a whooper. He was comatose and we had to take him back and forth between the vet hospital for day and the emergency vet hospital of nights. He DID come around after a few days and eventually wound up with just a little neurological damage for one foot so even learned to run with that. Oh, and if both rear legs are having trouble with a thrombosis that is going to be a saddle thrombosis, but if only one leg has problems then massage can actually sometimes help a bit -- a lot of massage. Time for the vet so that what is actually going on can be figured out. Outdoor walks: also read up on soil borne diseases in the FML and FHL archives. The chances of those are probably low but you need to know about them in case they happen to jump fast enough because some are downright nasty. It is good to be addressing some things with better outcomes that shiga toxin producing E. coli is likely to have. Sad when thromboses are a break isn't it? 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/ http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html "All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow." (2010, Steve Crandall) [Posted in FML 6786]