His kidneys failed him and he had a mercy shot as the final gift. This was his fourth time in life with a life-threatening urinary tract illness. If he had not had the other three near failures something of this size may not have been enough to take him. On the other hand, due to diligent care (IV, subcu, surgery, and more) he got another 7 years of life after his kidneys almost failed him the first time. Steve and I are very grateful for those 7 years. People are not supposed to have favorites, but Steve and I both think that he may well have been the best animal either of us ever had in our lives. Hilbert was a perfect example of why veterinary care is so very important, and why IV and then patience and loads of careful home care can give a ferret so much more quality time if the ferret is not very old. His first bout of kidney disease was so severe that it took him a year to get back to full energy and a year and half to get back to full weight. Instead of dying in his first year he passed just shy of 8 years old thanks to excellent care whenever he needed it. He was worth every hour and every dollar. He had more than one terminal condition at the time he passed and they were pretty much in a race to see which got too bad first. Hilbert's final resting place is in a shady grove near a pond with a large piece of shale forming a one-rock cairn that covers the top of his grave. Deer bed down near there; he'd probably have found that interesting. To those on the Ferret Health List: please, remember that the FHL does not take sympathy posts which don't contain new health information. I can not promise to have time to answer sympathy posts promptly. It will depend on whether I find physical work more comforting or not and on how many arrive, so patience, please. 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 6812]