Hello Everyone, About a week ago, I posted about my little Pixie (4.5 yo, MF female) who was sick, and asked for advice. Well, she is not showing a lot of improvement, so I'm sending more info to see if you all can help out my vet and I (he has some ferret experience, and is a great doc, even though he wouldn't classify himself as a ferret-expert). Background: Saturday, July 4th, Pixie was her normal energetic self. Sunday, July 5th we were out of the house so she didn't get her normal morning time out, and she was sleepy at her evening time (which is not anything unusual). Monday, July 6th, she was limp (not that she couldn't move if encouraged, but she didn't want to) and just wanted to sleep. We went to work as normal, but checked on her mid-afternoon (at which time we gave her a little mineral oil, suspecting blockage) and evening, and she hadn't eaten anything. She pooped a little after the mineral oil, and it was "grainy" and soft, but normal-colored. She went to the emergency vet that evening. The vet found a highly enlarged spleen and did an x-ray, which also showed a potential blockage along with the enlarged spleen. All other organs appeared normal. The did bloodwork, and since she had not eaten since at least 10am, they even checked blood sugar. The results were: ALB 2.12 g/dl HCT 34.3% ALKP 35 IU HGB 11.1 g/dl ALT 166 IU MCHC 32.4 g/dl BUN 24.8 mg/dl WBC # 5.9 x 10/L CREA .22 mg/dl GRANS # 5.3 x 10/L GLU 161.6 mg/dl L/M # 0.6 x 10/L PLT # 513 x 10/L Because of the enlarged spleen, the emergency vet checked the platelets and said the count was good. In fact, she said that other than the enlarged spleen and lethargy, Pixie was one healthy ferret. Her temp that night was 103. Her weight was 2.7 lbs. The emergency vet gave us Nutrical to suppliment, and we gave it to her three times that night. She did a very soft poopy that morning, about the dark color of the Nutrical. The next day we took her to the regular vet. He found enlarged lymph nodes and did an aspirate, thinking lymphoma or lymphoscarcoma, but he didn't find any malignant cells (later confirmed by a pathologist). Her temp while she was there was 105.2 at one point, under 105 when they sent her home with us. So, the diagnosis was massive infection. The did bloodwork to check if it was centered in the liver or kidneys, and said that no, it wasn't in either of those places. So, she came home to us with Clavamox (amoxy-drops). She has gotten better, but won't eat on her own. She doesn't have much energy, although she still plays in her dryer-hose and crunchy sack. The night she got home, I fed her some mash (kibble softened in pedialyte and crushed with more pedialyte). The following morning, she had a small, dark, soft poopy. She has been doing that sort of poopy on a regular basis. She went back to the vet yesterday (Monday, July 13th). Her temp was 104.2 and her weight was 2 lbs. Her spleen and lymph nodes are still enlarged (the vet said she has the largest spleen he's ever seen on a ferret, but in his words, ferrets' spleen enlarges at the drop of a hat and it is a very non-specific symptom). He says he would have liked to see her making a more rapid improvement. (Oh, on the temperature, the ride to the vet is 25 minutes, I live in Florida, and I don't have A/C in my car, so that may be why it was a little elevated - no flames, I gave her cool water, kept the air flowing, and kept her out of the sun). I do not recall if the vet checked for coccillia (sp?) or guardia (sp?) but when I asked about heliobacter, he stated that he had never seen a case of it in ferrets. I faxed him info from Ferret Central, and when I saw him for the re-check, he said he did not feel the symptoms matched enough to consider it a possibility. (I had taken them a stool sample when I first went in, and they were happy to get it, so I assume they tested it, although they didn't mention it and I forgot to ask.) Sorry this got so long, but I wanted you to have as much info as possible so I could get your opinions on what to have my vet check or what we can try to help her. Thanks for any help you can give. Debbie & Jim Pixie (The one in charge) P.S. Just spoke with my vet after he spoke with the ferret-expert (Dr. Parrot, what a great name for an exotics vet!). She (Dr. Parrot) said that it is probably adrenal or lymph cancer. So, we are drawing blood for the Tennessee panel to rule out (or confirm) adrenal. I would still like any other thoughts you all might have. Oh, and I would like to confirm the cost for the Tennessee panel in other areas of the country, so if anyone who has had it done recently would email me, I would really appreciate it. [Posted in FML issue 2370]