I have posted here once or twice asking for advice about my Gustifer and got some really good information. I am very grateful for all the knowledge the ferret collective has given me. I am asking for your help once more for mine as well as Gus' sake. Gustifer is 4 1/2 years old. The first two years was spent with a wonderful family who played with him and took good care of him. Then the family went abroad for a year. When they came back, they found a starved emaciated poor ferret who was almost dead. The people they had left him with hadn't taken care of him at all. His primary caretakers were good-natured well-meaning if somewhat ferret ignorant owners. They managed to nurse him back to health. The ferret mostly belonged to the young girl; by this time she was growing up and no longer interested in the ferret. So, the last year or two of his life was incredibly emotionally neglected. Fed and watered and that was it. I become aware of his situation and offered to take the ferret off of their hands. They agreed. Originally, I was going to bring him to a shelter, but I fell in love with his little face and partial blaze. so, before he even got to the shelter, I sent the money and adopted him right out! We went to the vet. He had scabs on his belly and my vet (Dr. Finkler - A GREAT ferret vet) told me that it was secondary bacterial infections due to lying in his own feces. He said they would clear up, and they did. Meanwhile, gus is profoundly scared of my other ferret, Hershey. He screams and hisses and snaps any time Hersh comes around. Well, he developed diarrhea. I didn't think much of it and thought it would clear up and it was due to stress. Well, it never did. After 2 months, a week taken off from work and approximately $1,000 later, we discovererd what was wrong (Thanks Dr. Williams!). Gus' villi in his intestinal track are fused together and blunted. His lymphatic tubes that transport fats and proteins to the bloodstream are clogged. Therefore, no matter what I feed him, or how much, he is starving to death. No cause has been discovered and the only treatment option is prednisone, and he doesn't respond. I even wanted a steroid shot just in case he wasn't able to absorb the pred, still didn't work. He is down to 1.8 from 2.5 (had been down to 1.6) and we have recently put in a feeding tube in the hopes of giving him more meds and food he will no longer eat. We are pretty much out of ideas and Gus is running out of time. I have tried everything. At one point, he was on 11 different things at one time in an effort to control the diarrhea (which was water with white bits in it) and nothing worked, not even close. So, *please*, everyone out there, keep Gus in your hearts for the next few days. His life hasn't been a fair one, and his potential death will be even less just. To say he deserves more than his given lot in life is an understatement if I ever heard one. Gus needs a miracle and, unfortunately, I just don't fit the bill of being able to give him one. Paige [Posted in FML issue 2726]