To Kari in Mass: Congratulations on your acceptance. We are all very proud of you. It is a tremendous feat to get into vet school and shows long hours of total dedication to your craft. I hope that you won't forget us when you start - although you may not have time for us. To Katie Fritz - Katie - I agree with you 99.9% that neoplasia cannot be diagnosed in ferrets with a blood test. There are some leukemic forms of lymphoma that make the white blood cell count so high, and when you look under the scope, the celss are so abnormal, that the diagnosis can be made. But I always caustion anyone who sends a blood smear to me, that if the smear looks like lymphosarcoma, have a biopsy of a lymph node done before starting ANY chemo./ Chemo, although well tolerated in ferrets, is nothing to be taken lightly, and we can get a LOT more info from a biopsy than we can from a blood test. Re: prednisone - actually, it is a form of chemotherapy. Some forms of lymphosarcoma are very susceptible to prednisone, and you will see a marked decrease in the size of the nodes strictly from giving prednisone. It also has the added benefit of perking up the patient's appetite and decreasing inflammation, as you said. But I always recommend pred in the case of lymphoma, because it has few side effects, and even if only given by itself, often adds a month or so to a terminal patient. Bruce Williams, DVM Department of Veterinary Pathology [log in to unmask] Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (202) 782-2600/2602 Washington, D.C. 20306-6000 [Posted in FML issue 1134]