Pivot, a standard sable, was born almost 6.3 years ago, a Danee DeVore ferret, and till now her only problem has been that the large cingulae which strengthen her teeth against breakage have meant that she needed a professional dental cleaning (though she fortunately had no decay and no gum disease). With age she has begun having problems with her scent glands which could not be handled sufficiently with warm compresses or soaks. They became impacted and infected, so the vet expressed her, the pus is being cultured, blood testing has been done since there is a good chance she will need surgery and also at her age and with her infection it just makes sense, meds have been started, and compresses continue. Years ago we had one other with age need hers removed and she did fine. We will see what happens. Although this has her a bit more quiet and a bit uncomfortable, she does not have pronounced symptoms, and remains an active ferret, though only moderately so with this infection. She has very good muscularity for a ferret her age and except for the thick claws of an older ferret Pivot looks about three or four. [Posted in FML 8128]