To Ron Hetrick: >Just 2 days ago my wife said she put our one boy down and his right front >leg went out of socket (it pointed forward) she immediately picked him up >and popped it back into place (yuuucchhh). Ron - We rarely see this problem in ferrets, but we can occasionally see joints that come out of place. Recently Dr. Weiss operated on a ferret with a luxating patella - where the kneecap moves over out of the normal place along the center of the leg, and the leg locks in place. It would seem that your ferret has a luxating shoulder. This may be due to a shallow joint. The shoulder joint has very little bone in it - the joint is primarily held in place by tendons and ligaments rather than a bony socket. If the ligaments are lax, you may have a joint that occaisonally pops out. Surgery can be considered if this happens on a regular basis, but I wouldn't rush into it. Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP [Posted in FML issue 1287]