There's a warning in the May 10th issue of "Health News" (newsletter from the New England Journal of Medicine) with a warning that some herbal medicines should not be taken for a while before surgery. The article mentions: "St, John's wort, ginko biloba, ginsing, or other herbal products" (their wording). Now, obviously it's already known by some here that blood clotting, pressure, etc. are effected by some herbs, given that such actions may be desired for certain treatments. Still, not all may know about special considerations, including those above which were taken from warnings put out by the American Society of Anesthesiologists. If you, or your vet, or both don't also know a large amount about various herbal preparations and can't find an advisor who does then it may just pay to stop any such meds for a while (Days? Weeks?) before surgery to avoid bleeding out, blood pressure difficulties, and other complications. I have passed on the comments about the AVMA page to the editor. She's kind of in the spot where she has to please everyone, but she likes the points about softening statements with comments which would very likely also be acceptable even to the most die-hard ferret critic: ones such as "as with any pet". From her reply I think an effort is being made to include such considerations in the future correction because they are true, valid, logical, and prevent comments from being exaggerated beyond all proportion. Our ferrets like my talking watch. The talking clock is not as impressive, possibly because they are used to listening to Steve on the telephone, but the watch is so much smaller and *** Mommy's arm talks ***! What can I say? I'm magic with my verbal limbs! My vegetarian husband spins, too -- gets on tile or linoleum in stocking feet balances on a heel and pushes off. I don't think it has anything to do with alligators ripping meat off carcasses. I suspect it's just fun. (Okay, I've tried it; it IS FUN! Steve's addition to this paragraph is: "Angular momentum is our friend." [Posted in FML issue 2670]