Chris and Pat, Please, accept our condolences on your loss. We know how hard it can be. Chris, Robert Hilsenroth who is a vet with the Morris Animal Foundation made an interesting suggestion which may be good for ferrets, the ferret net, and vets. He suggests contacting the American Veterinary Association (Chicago) at 1-800-248-2862 to publicize the net with veterinarians. Perhaps some will find ways to access it and more information can be shared. Would you like to do this? If not, would you want us to call, and if so, what do you want said? [It must just be my poor imagination, but I'm not sure what I'd want to say to the AVA considering that direct contact with them is a little awkward (you get hooked on e-mail). One possibility (my imagination is starting to work, finally), is that many of the AVA's members would be at veterinary universities/colleges that haven't gotten heavily into electronic communications. I could see advantages several ways: - Contact amongst vets working with ferrets (and some of the more expert ferret owners) - Broadcast of general interest items to the readership - Q&A on medical issues. I think it best that you call and see what happens. If you want to forward items to them, go ahead. Did you keep an archive of the issues back to day one? I'd like to do more, but I'm really busy at the moment. Keep me informed, and don't hesitate to bring me into the discussion if it seems appropriate.] So far we have heard back from 2 places about Aleutian Disease. Basically, what we have heard is this: that it is a very rare problem in domestic ferrets and though it is not as serious for ferrets as for mink it is a chronic wasting disease. We have also been told that there is very little chance that it has anything to do with Frit's cancer or Hjamlar's large spleen, partially because his spleen has stayed at this size for about 3 years so may just be normal for him. It seems that a large spleen is a very general symptom of many possible problems or of no problem at all. Now you know how rusty my physio is since I should has remembered that off the bat. Frit's progress continues to amaze vets and is being followed by several animal medical centers and vet schools now. You will never BELIEVE what one expert (who will remain unnamed) requested: that we bring Frit there and have her destroyed so that her tissues would be in optimal condition for study. Yes, it may well be an approach which could help other ferrets, but Frit still enjoys most of life and we sure are not about to destroy a member of our family who wants to live, cuddle, make cute, steal toy mousies, etc. That vet will be informed that tissues will be available for study from our vet after Fritter dies. We plan on an autopsy and on her tissues going to major centers for study, but it simply is not at all time for that. A lot is being learned by many vets from Frit. In two days it will be Sept 16th, her 21st week since symptoms began and 19 weeks since the original vets thought she should be put down. Unfortunately, her condition is deteriorating. She now needs her Elspar chemotherapy weekly (and the spleen stays down) but her nodes are up again in 4 days and sugar maintenance get worse then. Despite her having such a rough time with the Pred in doses above .15 cc/day we have had to increase it to .25 cc most days and a hair under .5 cc on the days when the nodes go up. She now gets aspirin to help with the muscle soreness (in combination with her warm bath PT), and we are hoping that this time she will not lose muscle so rapidly. Her food has changed, too. She was having extreme intestinal pain from cream (possible colitis) so all of that except the Ben and Jerry's that she gets when she is having her twice daily subcutaneous 20 cc of dextrose solution has been removed from her diet and we are trying many new treats to see if we can find one which will work during those times. (All suggestions of other net ferrets' favorite foods/treats will be appreciated). Her standard cat food plus rice plus Nutrical plus water plus lots of egg yolks now has a large portion of butter added because fats slow digestion and the looseness of her bowels is beyond what the rice can handle.n ccc 7juuvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv (That is Frit's addition to this letter; now she is rearranging a second hiding place of Melty's.) We are also getting very used to making up small portions of antibiotics as a just-in-case measure when her temperature goes up (to 104.6) or down (to 100.5) after the chemo (usually the 2nd day) since it can be hard to know what is a new infection and what is a response to the chemo some times. Sound like a miserable life but she is really making the most of it and loves being so spoiled. The others are all gaining weight because they get any Frit mush left-overs. They are round, furry, happy, and full of pranks and kisses. (Chip, Ruffle is jealous of mythic weasel-- she wants to weigh 26 pounds and go ga-flump, ga-flump, smash, hee, heee, heee.) I followed the recent nutrition comments with interest. After looking at the components of ferret diet in the wild (which certainly may NOT be optimal for longevity) and those of various foods available it looks like no one has yet developed and widely tested a diet for providing long life, i.e. I came to the same conclusion as Fara. Could the European correspondents print information about nutrient proportion in foods over there? One big difference we have read about is that the high percentage of insulinoma in N. American ferrets may be related to the lack of chromium in their diet (which is why ours' now get a tiny bit of Brewer's Yeast. Frit has pulled Fox's book out the bookcase and is asleep on top of it. Cute photo if I had film in the camera because she looks like she is hugging the sketch of the ferret. Sukie [Posted in FML 0178]