Hey all. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! It took me quite a while to catch up on the FML after being gone since Wednesday. I have a medical question. My grandma has a pretty new kit (probably about 4 months old now). Anyway, Taz, the tailless wonder, has an incredible energy level and while he was playing with the rest of the collective 10 we had around for thanksgiving, I picked him up to play with him and I noticed his little butt was slightly bloody and puffy or swollen or something. I'm not sure what the cause of this is, but he was recently descented (the vet is an advocate of these things) and I'm not sure if this could have caused it...or, they feed him quite a variety of foods and since he eats *anything* I'm afraid it could have something to do with it. I tried to discourage them from feeding him table scraps like a dog (they gave him fried okra, for heaven's sake--and he eats it!) and hopefully they'll listen, but I wonder what caused this and what needs to be done to fix it. Taz doesn't seem to be in any pain and he's got lots of energy, but I worry about him, even though he isn't mine. Any advice will be appreciated and passed on to my grandparents (who will be taking him to the vet). Also, I've been reading about the miracle that is wood stove pellets for weeks. I have been trying to get a hold of some of this stuff to test it for myself with no luck. Apparently there are is a shortage of wood stoves in Texas, go figure. People have been looking at me like I'm crazy when I ask about it. I found one place in San Antonio/New Braunfels that stocks them in the winter, but each time I've been there and called them, they haven't had any in stock. I haven't had any luck finding them in Houston. Here's my theory...(you know, supply and demand and all that)...I am going to look for a place in (or around) Houston that stocks similar items. If there aren't enough wood stoves to provide a market for these things, the ferret owners here should get together and try to encourage them to stock a "test" shipment of wood pellets. We can perhaps buy bulk and then if we like the way they work, maybe the store will stock them if they know ferret-people will buy them all year. Any takers? I would like to tell them that we would be willing to buy 25-30 bags total or more to make it worth their while...in fact, the more, the better! Please write me and let me know and we can try to set this up. Since it is supposed to be fairly cheap (you can probably figure a slight markup since we're so southerly) it can't hurt to try it after all the great things said about it. Thanks for everything! [log in to unmask] --->Kelly |\__\ /__/| Head of Animal Optometry | o o o o | "Damn you, Let the Rabbits wear glasses" / =p= =q= \ University of Houston | | Reverend Maynard: "I'm not looking at you." Edie: "Snore, squeak." ** "A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself." ** (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead) [Posted in FML issue 1771]