(For detailed info on ferret lymphsarcoma, visit the website: www.next.com/Homes/dennis/ff/med/lymph.html#treatment Hi Kristin, I am SO sorry about your 8 month-old ferret. I too lost my 7 1/2 month-old girl Poofer to lymphoma on Labor Day weekend, and believe me, it is a hard thing to get over. Like your ferret, Poof was fine, then was suddenly lethargic. I thought she had a cold or the flu. After a couple days of this, I noticed she was dehydrated and having difficulty respirating. She also felt hot. I force-fed her water, and had her sleep in the bed next to me so I could keep an eye on her. The next morning, I brought her to the local animal hospital. Her temperature was very high - 102.5, and her spleen felt enlarged, although they didn't detect any abnormalities in the X-ray. No one knew what was wrong w/ her. I left her there to be put into ICU. I visited her that night again, but they had taken her out of ICU because her temp was down. After shaving all four legs to find a vein, they still couldn't get a needle into her, so they gave her under-the-skin injections of fluids to keep her hydrated. She looked confused, but did recognize me. The next morning, the vet said her fever had spiked again and she was in ICU on oxygen. I thought it was green slime disease, but they said that difficulty with resperating was not a symptom of green slime. The vet said it might be lymphoma. Interestingly, her white blood cell count was in the normal range. I visited her again, and she looked awful - each leg had purple bruises where they tried to unsuccessfully shove in the IV needle, and she looked strange - like not the same old Poof. Although she recognized me, she may have been brain-damaged at this point from the fever. The vets still didn't know what it was. I could tell Poof was not going to get better, so I decided to put her out of her misery and told them to put her to sleep. It was the saddest day of my life and I felt like I had lost my baby girl. This was a few weeks ago and I'm still very sad. Anyway, the autopsy showed lymphoma in her chest (which was affecting her breathing ability) and abdomen. I later checked out a website on ferret lymphoma; turns out, it is very common in ferrets, comprising about 20% of all reported neoplasms, or growths. One woman who runs a shelter in New Hampshire told me they have a 50/50 shot of getting it by age 4. I guess it's just a risk that we as ferret owners have to take. Ferrets in/from England do not have a high rate of cancer. Perhaps it's b/c they are not so inbred, or because they are not neutered so early. Neutering a ferret really young like they do here prevents them from growing to full size (an un-neutered ferret is HUGE!), and prevents their immune system from fully developing. Makes me think twice about buying another ferret that's been neutered/spayed at 5 weeks old. -Jenn [Posted in FML issue 1695]