Hi All - Well Vixen is still hanging in there and the anal gland tumor became infected so she went on another dose of Clavamox (I think thats what it was) which she hates but which also cleared up the infection in 2 days, but now she has a reverse mohawk - lost all hair up and down her spine but hair everywhere else. Our problem is she is a bad surgery risk so we'll keeping plugging along and I'll try to keep her as comfortable as possible. We have 2 others with tummy problems. Bonnie, one of the 8 kits that were turned in back in July, has a lump in her tummy which I suspect to be an enlarged spleen, at least it is in the right place and feels much the same as my 8 yr old Prissy's enlarged spleen. I'm quite worried for Bonnie because she is very lethargic, and she has never been "normal" as far as energy level. Her owner is boarding her with me till later this month so I'll be taking her and Poto (who has a hard tummy - not lumpy hard) to the vet this week to find out what we need to do. Our problem is the vets in this area know very little about ferrets and even though they are willing to try to find what is wrong, they take the long way about it and run up extra expenses for tests. So Dr. Williams or Dr. Brown do you have any suggestions of what type of tests we should start with? I'm really not worried about the expense as I am the stress placed on the ferrets when all those "other" tests are run. If you could e-mail me with instructions I'd be happy to print them off and take them to the vet with me later this week. Yes, veterinary care is expensive and especially for first-time surgerys, but when it comes to these babies I refuse to cut corners (I guess that's why I work 7 days a week at 2 jobs and have several credit cards!) Now a request for ferret articles. I'm starting another book and this one will contain all the ferret articles I can locate. Please send clean copies of any articles you may have to: Ferret Family Services, PO Box 186, Manhattan, KS 66502-0002. I believe a booklet of this type may help to persuade "officials" on the domestic aspect and provide valuable information. Hugs to all! tle [Posted in FML issue 1032]