Here is something for the ferret books. Jet, a beautiful little girl from Meg of the East Coast, is lying in an incubator, fighting for her life. I give her one chance in four to live. About 9 months old, Jet was by *all* appearances and visual tests a healthy bouncing little girl. She loves climbing my legs, and riding high on the shoulder. She comes running at top speed when I call her name. Three days ago, I noticed she was not running around much. I checked her out, and she seems just a little pale, but everything looked otherwize fine. Two days ago, I recognized a drastic behavior change, and that her gums and ears were very pale. Fearing she was bleeding, maybe even a blockage, I rushed her to the vet. Her bowel was empty, xrays negative. She was scheduled for spaying in two weeks, so on the chance that her bone-marrow was estrogen depressed, we went ahead and spayed her yesterday, carefully inspecting all her other stuff just to make sure. Everything looked fine, the ovaries looked like they might have been the problem. If so, this is the first time *I* have ever heard of a "silent heat;" that is a ferret being in heat before her first birthday, no swollen vulva, no smell or reaction from a closely-associated unneutered male hobb, no external signs at all. I mean none, and I've been checking daily. Yet she was severely anemic, and, while the ovaries tests won't be back for a while yet, from all indications, she has been in heat for some time. The surgery was touch and go. Carbone and Chrys were on hand in case a transfusion was needed. In the late evening, she came home. She was weak, but she could walk, passed a little poop (about an inch of formed dark brown stool with small possibly black flecks), ate some baby chicken mixed with pedilyte, and drank some straight pedilyte. She was not dehydrated at all. I decided to stay up all night with her, and she was doing fine, mostly sleeping, lay on my lap a while, but quiet like you would expect her to be just after surgery. Until 4:45 am. I noticed her breathing was sort of strange sounding, so I picked her up and immediately noticed she was completely unresponsive to any stimuli, labored breathing, very rapid hear rate. She didn't respond to karo syrup, didn't respond to tactile or pain stimuli. I rushed her to the vet (after getting him out of bed) and gave her oxygen via a mask. A half hour later, she was responding to stimuli, and into a O2 filled incubator she went. By 7am she was alert but weak. By 9am, they were starting to decrease the O2 down toward room levels to see if they could wean her off. We are still deciding if she should be transfused or if the stress at the moment might be too much for her. In any case, she is in the equivient of a pet ICU right now, and Carbone, Chrys, Moose and Trillian are standing by to donate blood shold it be pudent to do so. I'm not sharing this for sympathy or for people to say I did my best if it doesn't work out. I've looked through all the medical references and checked out all the search engines (Medline, Biological Abstracts, etc.) and could find not a single thing indicating ferrets could have a "silent heat." This isn't being caused by a tumor; as far as we can tell Jet was in heat long enough to depress her blood count and make her seriously anemic. I'm posting this to warn others of a rare but possible dangerous problem, and, frankly, to see if anyone else has ever heard of this type of thing in ferrets; (I know it happens to dogs and cats on occasion). One other thing. I absolutely know what the signs of a ferret being in heat look like and I did not miss them. Jezabell (about 2 months older than Jet) and Amber (about Jet's age) are not in heat, nor do they display any sign of trouble. Both will be spayed in two weeks. Jet hasn't lost any hair, she hasn't acted like she is in heat, no sollen vulva, no drainage, no nesting, no swollen nipples, to weight loss/gain, nothing. The only symptoms were of the anemia, nothing more, and it seemed to be quite sudden, acute case. In any case, if you have a minute or two, think of Jet. Bob C and the other 19 worried Carpet Sharks. [Posted in FML issue 2238]