I posted the other day that Cassie, at age 3.5, hadn't been sick a day in her life except briefly as a kit. Well, no sooner did I do so than I rushed her to the vet for what was probably nothing. I noticed the other day that Cassie seemed to have a little bit of reddish residue around her vulva. She also had some residue around her rectum, maybe a little reddish, or maybe it was just poop. Later she had some dampness on her vulva, and blotting with a white kleenex it looked like it might be slightly pink. The first thing that came to mind was possible blood in her urine, maybe a urinary tract infection. I took her to the vet and asked for a urinalysis and fecal test. The vet gave her these, as well as a general exam, but everything checked out clean. Her behavior has been completely normal, eating, drinking, eliminating, playing and cuddling the same as always, with two small exceptions. Her litter training has been slipping, after being excellent for years. And she has sometimes been a little squirmy when held; used to be she usually sat still pretty well. I had thought maybe these were some sort of reactions to Bud passing away. One thing my vet suggested was that sometimes an active ferret (I think Cassie qualifies :) through falls or whatever will cause a slight injury and minor bleeding in the bladder, but that this is not serious and clears up by itself. But Cassie has had this residue for a few days at least, and yet urinalysis showed no blood in the urine. Another thing he suggested is that excessive licking can also cause stains. Anyone have any ideas? I'm certainly willing to entertain the notion that I'm just overly paranoid after having lost Bud. -- John Rosloot, Caregiver to Cassidy and Sammy With loving memories of my dear departed Buddy Technical analyst, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Regina Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~john/ferrets.html [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1448]