Hello I wanted to give you an update on Angel, my little girl with ascites. I almost lost her last Sunday, she, her mum Jilly, brother Jack and Bella were in the cage at night (they don't get on with my 3 "new" rescues so either the 4 or the new 3 spend half the day in the cage) and when I got them out the next morning, Angel didn't move. I took her out and she was limp like she was going to die. I bet she didn't eat or drink all night. So I took her out of the room and laid her down on the floor- didn't move. So I hurried downstairs to do some re-hydrate drink for her and open her can of Ensure. Luckily I DID decide to buy the stuff the day before, I almost thought leave it until Monday... So I did the re-hydrate powder and mixed it with water and I gave it to Angel with a syringe and then I force fed the Ensure and slowly she started moving again and lifted her head. Over the day she ate the Ensure, she licked it while I squeezed it slowly out of the syringe. But she was so weak, when I let her out of her cage (I separated her from all the others then), she would walk 3 steps and then lie down. By the night she was a bit stronger and had a good walk through the lounge and ate quite a bit of apple. I had some apple in the bin which I had taken off my guinea pigs and Angel took the apple out of the bin so I thought I'd do her some and she loved it. Over the next few days I gave her Ensure every day, I prepared different types of duck soup but Angel didn't like any of them but she drank the Ensure so I thought that's better than nothing at all. But I always had to take her on my lap, dip my finger into the Ensure and then she licked my finger and slowly started to lick the Ensure out of her bowl but she never drank it on her own in her cage, I always had to sort of feed her. So that's why I went to bed at 1.00 a.m. every day and got up at 7.00 a.m. because I didn't want her to go without food for too long. By Wednesday she ate a few minced morsels, it's a dog treat/ food that the kids usually adore so I bought some in case Angel liked to eat it. She was with me in the shop and ate some morsels there so I was happy as it was the first proper food she ate. Thursday I bought some Whiskas cat food as the kids always liked that as a treat as well so I offered some to Angel and she ate it so since Thursday she's been eating again. Last night she ate 53 kibbles of the Whiskas food, I know it's not the best food but at least Angel is eating. We still don't know what's wrong with her. I consulted a few vets and sent them Angel's results and one vet said Angel had a liver tumour and was dying. As anybody can imagine, I was sooo upset and cried all day long. Then I asked the other vets whether they thought the same but they said they couldn't say she was dying just from the results. A German vet said it could still be the heart, the heart could cause the ascites and the ascites is pressing on the liver causing the liver to "get sick". She said I should put Angel on heart medicine just to see whether this helps as the heart medicine can't do any damage. At the same time Dr. Bruce Williams wrote to me and said liver disease was so rare in ferrets and most, if not all, the ascites he's seen in ferrets came from heart disease. So why should my little Angel have a liver tumour against the odds, especially when she's so young. So Tuesday Angel got her first 1/8th of a heart tablet, the day before she also got a liver stimulant injection and by Wednesday she looked a lot better. We don't know what is helping her which isn't so good but at least Angel is a bit better rather than worse. So Angel now gets 2 liver stimulant injections a week, 2 tablets for her ascites and her heart tablet a day. She hates taking her medicine but is getting better. And she also lost 100g which means that 100g of the ascites must have gone. Anyway, I thought I write and let you know what's happening. Best wishes Ulrike and the 10 kids -- http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~ferret/ [Posted in FML issue 2346]