Hi folks, I just had a moment, so I thought I would use it to post this information that I already sent to Chere Mccoy, about heartworm treatment. Dr. Richard Henderson, of the Galveston Veterenary Clinic has successfully treated a ferret for heartworms. The ferret was a 5 pound male named Sherman (appropriately named for his size), who now weighs in at 5.5 pounds. As I recall, the treatment involved running a cathiter down into the heart and administering a slow drip of diluted arsenic solution through it for about half an hour. There was about a six week recovery period, during which it was *EXTREMELY* important that Sherman be kept as inactive as possible. The reason for this was to allow the heartworms to disolve into small pieces, that would not block the blood vessels. Too much activity by the ferret, durring this recovery period, could cause the heartworms to break into too large pieces that could become fatal if one of them were to become lodged in a blood vessle. It is very fortunate that Chere discovered the heartworms in Rusty when she did, as the first symptom of heartworms in ferrets is usually death. Such was the case with Sherman. He was romping around one moment, climbing up the front of the couch the next moment and fell over with no heartbeat or breathing the next. Fortunately, his owners were both present when this happened. They learned, very quickly, how to do ferret CPR. Today, Sherman is 5.5 pounds of the gentlest, most vocal, active breeding ferret I have ever seen (except for my own Slinky, who is the gentlest ferret alive). If you should ever need heartworm treatment for one of your ferrets, you might give your vet Dr. Hendersons address and phone number, as a reference. He can be contacted as follows: Dr. Richard Henderson, DVM Galveston Veterenary Clinic 2108 61st. Street Galveston, TX 77551 Ph: 409-744-5355 I am sure that we will all be looking foreward to status reports from Chere, on Rusty's successfull heartworm treatment. On another note, we still have one female kit left for sale to a good home. She is a sable who was 10 weeks old yesterday (3/10). She is *VERY* imprinted on humans, having been handled and nursed from birth (I had to nurse the kits through the first night - before Godiva's milk came down). In fact, she even gives ferret kisses. How many 10 week old kits would you trust that close to your face? Although she has not been registered, her pedegree is registered through NAFA and we will supply registration forms if you choose to register her. You can contact me at: email: [log in to unmask] phone: 713/952-4233 (answered as Action Rubber Stamps) Next time, "Murphy was a Ferret Breader" or "Your Jill Never Read All Those Books That You Did". Until later, "Cats may be cool, but carpet sharks rule." John Gaver ([log in to unmask]) [Posted in FML issue 0434]