To Leighanne: I'm not a vet or a vet tech, but I did work in an animal hospital for many years. You're correct in your thoughts about fasting ferrets for surgery. not only do you need to consider their high metabolic rate, but their short digestive tract as well. Remember, it's only about 3 hrs from mouth to butt. I'm doing an article on this very subject for our next newsletter - I spent an entire afternoon playing "joe client" and called 15 local animal hospitals - some of them "ferret knowledgable" and pretended I wanted to schedule a ferret neuter. Only 1 of 15 gave me the correct answer - Brockport Animal Hospital. The rest told me from 6 PM, 9 PM, or midnight the nite before. Dr Judi Bell says they should be fasted for no more than 6 hours. Remember, just because your ferret is dropped off at 7 AM does not mean he is going directly into surgery. It may be 2 or 3 hours before any given ferret (or any other animal) is actually prepped for surgery. This adds to the length of the fast. Debbie Ricci WNYFLFA Rochester, NY [Posted in FML issue 1570]