Hi, folks. There's a lot of stuff I should respond to, but just don't feel up to it right now, though I will mention something for the person whose ferret eats aloe because it is probably not common knowledge. Your ferret's urine may turn scarlet if it eats enough for a long enough time. Years ago there was a fad among seniors (There are a LOt of elderly with no knowledge of biology who tend to get into trying superstition cures for ageing, then a person has to convince them to say what they have done and scare up info.) of eating aloe and at that point Poison Control knew only that it could cause digestive upset and would turn urine scarlet; they might know more now, since I advised them of the fad and required their help for someone at what appeared to be the beginning of that trend. Okay, I am avoiding having to mention our bad news. Meltdown's problem is ventricular bigemini (I may have this wrong. I need to read up on it but first I need to get calm enough; her ventricle tends to put in two rather than one beat -- it's just too stretched in the critical area for the electrical signals to move properly.) from dilated cardiomyopathy without fluid accumulation. Right now she is on Enacard, but not on Lasix since it would dehydrate her, and several veterinary cardiologists are trying to figure which pharmacological approach would be the best to try with her since the drugs which would help her rhythm are also ones which are toxic to heart muscle or would suppress heart function. Although her heart did not appear enlarged on x-ray the sonogram and EKG showed some enlargement, definite thinning of the walls, and impairment. The long and short of it is that our little seven and half year old is going away. We don't know how long she has. If there were fluid retention, too, then it might be weeks or a few short months at most. Since there is not, perhaps with careful management and more than a bit of luck she might be sharing hugs and cuddles for another half year or so. (Our vet is Hanan Caine at 1-908-766-0506 if any vets here have experience with this particular variant of cardiomyopathy. He's tops.) Bill, we need the cardiomyopathy fax. Will send a request. For those who want to know about Meltie: We picked her up from Path Valley Farms years ago. Although we hadn't planned on getting one so young she was in the office to have her stitches out at 5 weeks and this tiny silver-mitt sterling just claimedSteve; it was a very strong love at first sight situation so we drove home with her that day even though she was not one of the ones presented to us. She fit in the palm of my hand, and I have small hands. When we showed her a bit of cheeseburger she exclaimed "Yip, yap, yip, yap!" and tore into it. Between her level of energy, the proximity of the breeder to Three Mile Island, and her affinity for melted cheese "Meltdown" was the most descriptive name. Meltie's only quirk is that she has gleaning genes; she'll accept ferrets which acquire handicaps but she has always wanted to destroy Ruffle who was born with multiple handicaps. Actually, she has always been excellent with anyone who is ill, even when Ruffle is ill she will fuss to get us to take a look into Ruffle's cage, banging and then running up the bottom of Ruffie's cage (Those two main cages are stacked) and bumping upward. When Hjalmar had cancer we would vary where he slept at night (master bathroom, or right next to the bed at eye level, or in the living room by his favorite window) depending on how he was doing. When he was in a cage in the living room we would put Meltdown out there in another cage (He could get grumpy with pain, as would anyone.) right next to it and she would force herself to stay up all night and keep an eye on him. If anything went wrong she would bang and scream for us. Since Hjalmar was a cancer patient for 14 months we probably wouldn't have survived without her help letting us have occasional night off. When we took in Warp in late '94 we presented her to Meltdown with the explanation, "Meltdown Mommy's baby; Warp Meltdown's baby." and that is exactly how she treated her, to the point of doing Warp's litter training for us. Meltie would decide that Warp had to go and she'd drag her to a pot and shove her in. Then she wouldn't let her out till she had gone. Meltdown has been a perfect alpha, maybe because she never seemed to want the job. We suspect that power was never her thing. She's been almost always gentle but firm with the others. Her patrolling chores are something she takes very seriously. One night there was a crash in the middle of the night, and when I went out to check she banged her (the big one with most of the ferrets) cage and yelled at me so hard that I knew that I was not supposed to investigate it without her. It was just a candle, and she was the one who found it, but I was very flattered by her care (though it may simply have been curiousity or duty). Just several days before she dropped out so badly I found her dragging a pair of Steve's shorts under the bed. Your know those rare times when things just mesh? I wound up singing right then and there " I caught Meltdown dragging Daddy's drawers underneth our queen-size bed today; stashing his underwear, though her own butt was bare...". She loved it, but then I never said she had taste. She also gave us one of our best examples of ferrets understanding what we say if we just keep it simple and restrict our work usage. Warp had fallen asleep somewhere so Meltdown was told something along the lines of "Where's Warp? Meltdown get Warp, then Daddy give Meltdown tube treat" repeated a few times. She ran to our platform bed, climbed the side, rooted around in there and climbed back out dragging Warp by the neck. Then she deposited Warp on Steve's foot, looked up, and licked her chops. This is a very sad time for us; we hope she has as much time as possible before her and that it does not become painful. Right now she mostly wants to sleep and cuddle us. We've set up a special cage for her and she sees the others only when she wants to, which hasn't been often this week, and only for as long as she wants. She's close enough to smell them. Sukie, Steve, Meltdown, Ruffle (who also has heart disease but not cardiomyopathy), 'Chopper, Spot, Meeteetse, and Warp [Posted in FML issue 1517]