First of all, thanks again to all of the private well wishers that have been E-mailing. There continue to be so many (yesterday's count was 80) and I can not possibly answer them all. If you did not get a personal response, please accept my apologies, and know that I very much appreciate your continued concern. Last night around 9:00 p.m., Bubba began to brighten a little. This morning, he was sitting up (back end still not working) although he was shaky. This afternoon he fought tooth and nail while I was giving him his sub-q fluids. Tonight, I got him to eat a little hamburger (I know it isn't on the best of ferret menus, but he ate I don't care what it is). Yesterday, in addition to his regular meds, I got 8 cc's of Timmy' Tonic, with a few drops of Colloidal Silver and Milk Thistle down. I am up to 7 cc's so far today. I am hoping for at least 10 but hopefully 12 before the day is over. I don't dare start getting excited because I do not believe we are out of the woods yet. We have no idea what is wrong with Bubba. I am finally able to rationally think, so, here are the findings, has anyone ever encountered anything like this before? Symptoms first started with hind end weakness. He was a little clumsly in his gait when he came to live with us almost 2 weeks ago, but due to his demeanor, we believed the problem to be due to several months of confinement in a very small cage, on a wire floor. On Tuesday night of last week, we noticed he had stopped using his back end. We had had a previous appointment made with our vet for that Thursday night. At the vet, he was showing no signs of illness, however, he was not using his back end. X-rays were taken and oddly enough, he began walking again, for a short time, after the manipulation which was involved in taking the x-rays. We left with prednisone. No masses appeared on x-rays, no masses were detected from palpation. On Friday afternoon, Bubba crashed. He became dull and listless and severly dehydrated. Blood was taken with the follwing results:BUN @ 42, Creatinine @ 0.9, WBC @ 16.6, PCV @ 69, MCV @ 49, SGOT 2040 (normal maxes at 280!) and SGOT @ 890 (normal max again at 280). The rest of the blood work was normal. Saturday morning he was rushed back to the vet for sub-q fluids and another once over. Again no masses were detected. by this time adrenal disease and insulonoma we effectively ruled out We left with oral Flagyl, injectable Baytril and sub-q fluids. As Saturday became Sunday - Bubba continued to worsen until he could no longer even lift his head. I don't know whether it was the meds finally taking hold, or the Timmy's Tonic, or just a plain old miracle brought on by the many prayers on his behalf, but Bubba started coming back Sunday night. (I will continue all three until he is well or leaves us). Through all of this, Bubba's coat improved in thickness, appearance, luster, and touch. Additionally, Bubba's "beer belly" remained unchanged. While he has shown weight loss in all other parts of his body, his stomach remained plump and soft. He still has no use of his hind end. He had diahrea one day only. The rest of his stools were formed, although he has not eaten other than only a few cc's a day of duck soup. What ever he has, it is not contagious, as his brother ferret, who has been diagnosed with just about everything in the book has not had the same symptoms. Has anyone ever heard of an illness like this before? We really would like to have a hint as to what we are dealing with here. Hoping for yet a better tomorrow for Bubba, Kathy. [Posted in FML issue 2256]