Who says it's cats which have nine lives? Hanan's back and just a half hour ago examined the bloody samples from Saturday night and against all probability it looks most like reactive colitis, so right now we're going on that assumption and treating accordingly, eliminating the whipping cream even though she had been having no apparent problem from it and it eased meds times because dairy could be the sudden cause, restarting the Winstrol and hoping that doesn't start her bleeding again. There are some other possibilities, none of which are anywhere near as good, so we hope that this is our reality for now, rather than a false trail. You do what you can in the directions which offer comfort. More testing at this point could endanger her or make her uncomfortable, and if reactive colitis is not the cause then knowing more would not be able to give her any more help or ease her life in any way. It really would be wonderful if she turns out to have another month (week, day(s)) in her, wouldn't it? Thank goodness ferrets are so over-built. We each do what we can in life and more often than not things do turn out reasonably. For a ferret who will be 8 years and 3 months on the 4th, and who has had cardiomyopathy for 9 months Meltie sure manages to squeeze every last drop of pleasure from life. May we all be so strong and fortunate. Sukie [Posted in FML issue 1800]