SQUEEK: We think about Squeek everyday. Please continue to update us on his progress. I'm sure Squeek is enjoying the sun and fresh air with you to help him enjoy it... Here's to good luck coming your way! SYLVIA: >I would love to hear from any of you that have had the experience of having >a little fuzzie splinted. Well I have good news and bad news for you if your experience is anything like ours. A few years ago our Edith had a very bad break in her front leg when she was young. The vet splinted it and YES she recovered 100% and noone would know that she broke her leg except that she backs off of high places instead of jumping forward. However, the whole experience was quite harrowing and Edith did suffer many setbacks and if I had it to do over again I would not (never never) splint a break but rather confine the little one to bed rest (I know impossible but probably easier than dealing with a splint in our case) or go for the surgery to install a pin. This is what we dealt with and oh I so hope you don't have this same experience but do be ready for it. The skin underneath the splint got infected and wore down to raw meat, it caused so much pain for Edith that she barely moved and became quite obese which deterioted her general wellbeing making her prone to flus and colds and so she was sick for several weeks, the splint moved a few times and had to be redone and in the process reversed the healing process, once the splint dislocated her shoulder, the skin infection was difficult to heal - she was on internal antibiotics and external too. During this time we carried her around in a sling around our neck as she was very scared to be alone and wasn't able to walk around and follow us. They tried to keep the splint on for 4 weeks. In this time we must have gone to the vet 12 times and to the emergency vet twice. The splint only stayed on for about 3.5 weeks. Afterwards when they removed the splint for good I almost passed out. It was the most disgusting thing I had ever seen just a raw bleeding stump of flesh and stunk - oh puke! The bone did not even feel like bone underneath it felt like marshmellow. Anyways, the vet recommended amputation. We decided we would wait a few days and make a decision. In the time following removal of the splint we concentrated on physical therapy and dealing with infection and also dealing with Edith's depression. We gave massages several times per day, we had swimming lessons in the bathtub, we applied some pressure to her paw to get her to push back as she just tried to ignore her arm and get along without it, etc, etc. We applied antibiotics and aloe and vitamin E to the skin. She was taking antibiotics orally too. We held her under her belly for her to relearn walking and running so she would burn off some calories (she was really severely overweight). Anyways, everything worked out great, the recovery was actually quite speedy after the splint was removed and her muscle came back and her strength came back. We learned that of splints, the best one that worked for us actually looked like a body cast. The first couple we had were on the arm only and they had a tendency to move and they pushed into her armpit and caused bruising and bleeding in there. The body cast wrapped around her whole body and her opposite arm a little and then down the bad arm. But, then this caused problems when she started gaining a whole ton of weight etc. If the splint goes past her paw beware of shoulder dislocation - this is what caused it with Edith. If she was wrapped up with that colored plastic kind of sticky gauze/tape stuff beware. In our experience it got tighter and tighter and started to act like a tourniquette. Well anyway - my advice if it is possible is to go back and get an orthopedic surgeon to install a pin in her leg and keep her quiet for a few days. If you decide to go with the splint monitor it very closely and plan for multiple trips to the vet - beware of infection, dislocation etc. In any case, Monty will want to help with Sylvia's recovery. I wouldn't recommend separating them as this may have a poor effect on Sylvia's spirits which she really needs to keep up. Good luck, keep us updated. Perhaps everything will go smoothly with this but we did have a very ferret-experienced vet and things went really really badly for us. ABBEY: >Sunday morning Abbey had a Grand Mal seizure - stroke I think. tle We have Abbey in our thoughts and prayers. With you going to bat for her, she is sure to make a speedy recovery. Charlene [Posted in FML issue 1586]