Chris, If any of this mail gets to you, please add the following question to the next mailing. Would you use this vet? I recently moved the ferrets back to Indy. The vets in Florida were not ferret vets, and were reluctant to do anything but life-saving techniques. So the little guys did not get their immunizations. Since they lived on the 3rd floor with no chance to meet other animals, I didn't worry about it. So I moved them to Indy, and Gumby got sick. I called a nearby vet and asked the technician who answered if they were "ferret vets." She said they had a "large" ferret clientele. So they made Gumby well, using typical supportive therapy. She had either a virus or a bacterial infection...fluid therapy and antibiotics, actually (cholomycetin to be exact), was all she had. Gumby seems to be fine. When I picked Gumby up I asked about getting their immunizations as soon as she is well enough. They suggested I wait a week. I asked for rabies specifically, and the technician said that ferrets do not get rabies vaccine. When I told her that a new vaccine exists, she was surprised and left to talk to the vet. She then assured me that they would order the rabies vaccine. She just called me and asked me if I know the name of the vaccine, and the manufacturer or distributor. I have that information from an old mailing. It's in Florida, but I have asked Chris if he remembers...if not I can call Florida and ask somebody there to look it up in my papers. [The address I had and posted was for the distemper vaccine that is safe with ferrets. I've not posted the address of the rabies vaccine, and my copy of the Morris Animal Foundation newsletter with the article on the rabies vaccine is probably non-retrievable at the moment. I can't even retrieve any ferret article < 109 for the moment either. Though, please don't mail me any... I'll post it if I find the address - if anybody else has it, please forward it to me] OK...there's the scenario. Now, the question. If these "ferret" vets don't know how/from where to get the vaccine, do they know enough about ferrets to be my vets? Should I give them the info, or look for a ferret vet? Your input, please!! [Any vet that can bring a ferret out a non-specific infection with supportive measures is okay in my book. The vaccine approval is very recent, and may not have made it into the standard journals yet. The only reference I've seen (tho, of course I am NOT a vet) is a Morris Foundation newsletter that someone is kindly forwarding to me. Vets who don't know ferrets have a tendency to be a little more obvious - using the wrong distemper vaccines, or the wrong anaesthetic (killed my sister-in-law's ferret that way). If the vet appears confident, handles the ferret properly, appears knowledgable, doesn't panic at the thought of trying to draw blood from one, you're doing okay. On the other hand, congratulate yourself if you find one capable of installing IV's into the forearm of a 1 pound dehydrated female ... Sniff, now we have to find a new one in Ottawa...] Oh, Codo (6 1/2 yr old neutered male, never descented) has a kind of "fullness" around his anus. It's bulging, actually. He does not seem to be bothered, but it certainly hasn't always been there. Has anyone seen that? Has anyone ever looked? Does this mean I am strange? [It's possible that this is a scent gland abcess - have the vet look at it. Our male had this problem.] Joyce Andrews King (currently in Indy, with Codo and Gumby) (att!inuxz!jla) (work 317-845-3928) (home 317-577-9484) [Posted in FML 0112]