I know everyone knows this, but please search your place twice today to check for ferret hazards. Rocko was not feeling well yesterday - wouldn't eat or drink, and slept all the time. Whenever I woke him up, he was pretty bright-eyed, and would squirm and the like, but just wasn't himself. He'd produced two 'stools' composed entirely of sticky orange mucus. His hindquarters felt thin, but some fruit-flavored Pedialyte in a feeder syringe helped that. I gave him Petromalt too, in case he was constipated, had a hairball, etc. Before I took him in to the veterinarian this morning, I checked his litterbox - and found 2 pieces of a wide rubber band in some more mucus. The vet determined that the rest of it was in the upper GI tract, under the ribcage, and thus couldn't be felt in an exam - and no swollen abdomen. Fortunately, Rocko was still pretty lively (I think the rehydration with the Pedia- lyte helped - thanks, Troy!). Considering where the blockage was, I didn't think it'd work its way out, so I told them to go ahead with surgery. He came out of it OK, with no tissue death in the intestine due to the blockage. The vet told me that he took a 5 INCH LONG piece of wide, swollen rubber band out of Rocko's stomach and upper intestine, and that there's no way it would have worked its way out. I didn't even know that I had rubber bands that size around my place, but it's amazing what the little weasels can find sometimes. The vet told me that he's seen cases of ferrets (mainly the young ones; Rocko's only 5 months old) with fiberglass insulation, pantyhose shreds, towel cloth, and rubber from shoe soles in their intestines. I know that ferrets are very bright, but please be extra careful to find everything that could be a ferret hazard. I was pretty pleased at how much I'd read and learned about ferrets, and thought my place was pretty safe. I'm sad that it took an expensive (but worth it - time to add to the credit card bill again) operation to show me otherwise. His symptoms didn't exactly conform to what I've read about intestinal blockage (no distention of abdomen; orange mucus 'stools' rather than very thin to no stool), so please don't be afraid to at least call a vet, or just go, if you're worried. Remember that these are very small creatures and can dehydrate/weaken quickly. On that note, I'd recommend keeping a feeder syringe and a bottle of fruit-flavored Pedialyte (the expiration date on the one I got yesterday is May 1996) around in case you need to rehydrate one of your little critters. I'm getting him back on Monday, but I'm so sad that he had to go through this! At least he wasn't afraid there, but I'm wondering what he's feeling like being there without me or Randall. (He does like people a lot, and everyone there thinks my guys are SO cute.) So please check in the most unlikely spots - rubber bands under a desk, foam filler inside the ripped lining of a chair, etc. You could save your ferret's life. Sadder but wiser, Denise plus Rocko (recovering, thank goodness) Randall (confused) Grumpy (teddy bear hamster; probably glad that there's only one ferret pulling the cover off of his cage lately) [Posted in FML issue 0953]