I just wanted to tell everyone that I am new in the ferret rescue business. I have only been doing it for about 45 days and I love it. I have had 3 healthy rescues that I have found loving homes for after their vet checks and then my fourth rescue was kinda sick and my volunteer fell in love with him, took him to the vets and then decided to keep him. :) My problem is that I got a e-mail and a phone call from a lady yesterday (last Friday) who wanted me to come and get her ferret.....so off I went. It was a two hour drive there and a two hour drive back.....man was I tired! :) Here is the deal........the ferret is a four yr. old female that has been spayed. She was in a large cage alone with no water and only a few pieces of cat food....cheap ass cat food from what the woman said. The litter box was filled with kitty litter (BAD LITTER). She has had this ferret for the full four years and she said that she had never given it any hairball remedy or anything. She also said that they rarely ever let it out of it's cage for exercise. :( This little female was very energetic, but scrawny and dirty. She has a bald spot about the size of a quarter on the back of her neck. Her vulva is very enlarged and white (pale). My first thought is of course Adrenal Disease. She said that the ferret has been like this for about 7 months. What I want to know from all of you that deal with ferrets so much also is.......is this Adrenal Disease or is it possible that she is just this way from such bad care all these years?? Could she be allergic to the kitty litter which might have caused her vulva to swell or maybe an allergic reaction to the cats, dogs, and birds this lady had her in the room with? Is there any other thing that would cause these symptoms besides the Adrenal Disease? I am so afraid that I haven't even let her in the same room with my own babies just incase this is something spreadable. When we got her and the cage home we had to scrub everything down. The cage had never been washed and had dried gunk on every bar of the cage. The water bottle was so.....well we just threw it away and used one of our spares. It was a mess. What a shame. She is really cute. The lady said that she ate and drank like a pig all the time and that she has always pooped normal. Now that she is here she is still eating very good and drinking plenty and pooping good. Well what does everyone think about this?? Now today it has been around 5/6 days since I rescued Cleo and I have kept her in a separate cage in a different room away from my personal ferrets (my babies). Here is a new problem besides the one I mentioned above.....last night one of my babies ran into Cleo's (sick ferret) room and was sniffing her through the cage bars. I grabbed him and took him out of the room. Now this morning when I went in to check on Cleo her litter box had a medium greenish colored slime pile in it. I have never personally seen the ECE poopies for myself and I am thinking that maybe that is what is was???? She has had a normal stool up until this morning and I haven't given her anything different to eat or drink. Now I am not only worried about Cleo having the ECE, but what about my ferret that was sniffing her and her cage and then I grabbed him and put him back in his cage with my other four personal ferrets???? Did I just contaminate them all now??? Someone please help!! Is this Adrenal Disease or more of a allergy type thing? Does this sound like ECE and if so did I just spread it from her to my own babies?? If this is ECE.... does that have anything at all to do with her hair loss and vulva swelling? I guess I am just trying to find other explanations for this hair loss/vulva swelling thing because I hate to see Adrenal Disease in a ferret. :( Thanks for any information you can give me. :) Michelle [Posted in FML issue 2662]