To be honest it's difficult for me to say categorically that yes, it does work.  I got it when Muis was diagnosed with insulinoma and I gave it to her every day.  One thing I can say with certainty is that it seemed to help her because she used to wander around the house quite happily, she'd come and see me in the study when I was working and always wanted to be lifted up onto my lap, and if we went out, she'd be at the front door to welcome us home when we came back.

She kept that up even when she developed adrenal disease and started to lose the hair on her back.  She slowed down, that was obvious, but she still liked wandering about and checking up on me.

Her behaviour was quite different to CJ, when he had insulinoma.  He was diagnosed with it back in 2001 and in those days I couldn't get any supplements for my ferrets. The only thing I could get was Colloidal Silver and I used to put some into their water bowls, hoping it would help.  I don't think it did anything at all.

CJ was on pred and although he was with us for about 7-8 months before his final visit to the vet, I remember he spent his whole time sleeping and not doing anything else much.

I can't tell you how it broke my heart to see him like that because he was the John Travolta of the weasel world.  His wardancing was magnificent and he was always so full of life and happiness before he got sick.

So, I am able to compare Muis & CJ when they were both ill with the same disease.  I would say without hesitation that I'm sure the TFPlus helped Muis keep her quality of life and made her feel more herself during the 12 months from time of diagnosis to when she passed over to the Rainbow Bridge.

Why I ask is because I ordered another bottle of Transfer Factor Plus from my supplier and I mentioned Kahlua's strange symptoms.

When I got the TFPlus, I found a sheet of  Legalon milk thistle capsules which they'd very kindly put in for Kahlua to try, to see if that would help her condition.

They even googled if ferrets could have it and told me they'd seen several websites which talked about ferrets having this supplement.  What wonderful people!

I opened one capsule and spooned the powder into my daily pill box, which I'd bought for Kaos's TCM years ago.  I then put a small portion of powder into some pet milk, stirred it and gave it to Kahlua.

It was quite amazing to see her walking around the house a couple of hours later looking quite perky.  Then a few hours after that I found her sleeping on her back in her hammock looking very relaxed. I think any owner of a sick ferret will know how unusual that is, as sick ferrets tend to just curl up when they sleep.

It seems that any ferret with problems with its liver would benefit by taking milk thistle and it doesn't seem to have any awful side effects. However I did find a holistic ferret forum with a post about milk thistle and pred.  It was thought that the milk thistle MIGHT block the pred but this wasn't said to be a fact.

I found a good site with information for dogs and cats so would recommend it to any ferret owner looking to find out more about this supplement.  There they recommend you giving it to your pet for 5 days, then stopping for 2, and continuing that for 6 weeks.

I'll give it a go and see if Kahlua continues to walk with a spring in her step as the days go by.  God knows I hope she will!

I took her to see my vet just to make sure she agreed with my decision and, would you believe, Kahlua had another LBSD episode while we were there.  My vet gave her a couple of smears of Nutrigel and within minutes Kahlua came good.

Then, about a week later, I noticed that there was a bump over Kahlua's left eye.  Of course I started thinking "brain tumour" and was stressing about some of the strange symptoms Kahlua had.

I had found her lying on her hammock looking out of it and although I didn't think it was a LBSD episode, I still rubbed Nutrigel on her gums as a precaution.  She didn't react for a while but when she did, her back feet had a claw-like appearance and she had a lot of "snot" coming out of her nose.

After she came out of her episode, I gave her her smoothy and she was very wobbly on her feet. As you can see from the photo, her left foot was still scrunched up like a claw and it took a while before she straightened it out.

She seemed to have a good appetite and ate her smoothy happily; when she decided it was time to go, she walked without any wobbles and her back feet straightened out.  It was like nothing odd had happened at all.

Anyway, I took her to my vet about her eye and apparently she has a cataract in her left eye and there was inflammation around it.  She had antibiotics prescribed for her and the vet said that the medication should help to reduce the lump over her eye and also stop the "snot" from coming out of her nose as the inflammation was blocking her nasal passage.

Since being on the antibiotics, she hasn't had another LBSD episode but she did have one where she was lying with her gums drawn back over her teeth and doing the rapid shallow breathing bit.  That went on for a couple of hours, then she seemed to wake up and act as if nothing had happened.

It really is so odd and so stressful for me as I don't know what to think and I honestly don't know what to do. Those odd episodes come very infrequently (thank God) and she seems to be fine afterwards.  The thing is, she never has those episodes when I can grab her and rush her down to the vet.

I guess as long as she acts like she's not in pain and still has quality of life, I shouldn't be too worried.  She eats well, she poops and piddles normally, and if it weren't for those odd occasions, I really wouldn't be stressing.

Ahh the joys of ferret ownership ....!

There are a number of ways you can help, and you can find out everything by going to their site, legalizeferrets.org to see what's required.

Imagine how great you'd feel if you knew that by helping, the Californian ferret owners manage to convince their government the errors of their ways and ferrets finally can finally come out from the shadows and happily be included in their families' lives without fear of reprisals.

Since coming out of hospital, I've developed a constant thirst - I guess from the medication - so I've had cans of Coke chilling in the fridge so that I can gulp them down whenever I feel the need.

Seamus has decided that he, too, likes the cans of Coke so here he is, taking my empty can and stashing it behind the sofa.

Excuse the mess in the sitting room! I've been a lady of leisure for the past 6 weeks so need to get off my tush and start cleaning the house

I was taking her to see the vet in the afternoon so around mid-morning, I went to get her as I'd prepared the smoothy for her to drink. She was lying under the cover of the hammock and when I pulled it back, I saw her doing the same as she did on Christmas Eve. She had her lips back in a grimace and was breathing rapidly and it was very shallow.

My heart sank! I picked her up and thought I'd better rub some Nutrigel on her gums just in case it was some weird blood sugar drop symptom. I did that but she didn't snap out of it, so I kept her lying on my lap, breathing hard.

It took about 1/2 hour before she seemed to come out of it and her breathing calmed down. I picked up the smoothy dish and put it on my lap near her and she just rested her head on the rim and started to lick tiredly - it was almost like it was too much effort for her to lift her head. I looked at her little face and her eyes seemed almost cloudy and unfocused and I really thought she was about to check out on me.

Slowly, very slowly, she seemed to regain her strength and I helped her stand so that she could lick more easily. She must have been very hungry because she almost finished all the smoothy, and there was about 1/2 cup of pet milk in the dish, together with the rest of the goodies I had added. Normally all 4 ferrets drink from the dish but here it was only Kahlua.

I put her down when she'd had enough and the poor thing could hardly walk. She seemed to go a few paces then stop, like she was exhausted. I was watching her so carefully and couldn't understand why she had so little strength. Then I remembered Kaos and how she was when she had cardiomyopathy so I was certain that, on top of her insulinoma, Kahlua was suffering from a heart complaint!!

That made sense to me - the rapid shallow breathing; the time she lay like road kill, splat against the floor with her arms and legs sticking out; the way she could hardly walk now without resting every few seconds.

I felt really depressed seeing her like this and was so worried that when I took her to see our vet, Fiona would say that it really was time for Kahlua to have her final injection.

However ... by the time I had to pick her up and take her to the vet, Kahlua seemed fine! All my hand wringing and heart pain that I had watching her look so ill faded into the distance - my little silvermitt looked like she was 100% normal!

What on earth would I show the vet - a seemingly healthy ferret with pink gums and clear eyes, and no symptoms of what affected her earlier. And, to make matters more frustrating, my digital camera wasn't working so I couldn't even take photos of what she looked like when she had these weird episodes! Isn't that always the way - grrrrrr!

So, we went to Fiona and I told her my worries about heart problems and so Fiona listened to her heart, to her lungs and to her abdomen. All 3 sounded clear and free of any fluid build up, so Fiona thought it was very unlikely that Kahlua had heart problems, but she did say that if there was another episode of that shallow breathing, then we'd have to X-ray her to see what was going on inside.

Kahlua got her prednisone and after having been on it for a week, I must say she seems a lot better. Not quite weasel wardancing but certainly walking around the house more often and seemingly happy.

I've also started giving her some pet milk with the contents of a Transfer Factor Plus capsule added to it, with 1/2ml of Poly-MVA and 1/2ml Marine Phyto Plankton added to it on alternate days. She laps it up happily so I have fingers crossed that it's doing some good and might even shrink that wretched tumour inside of her.

We shall see how she goes. I hope I'll keep her for longer than Muis had with us but only time will tell.

Before Christmas she had some funny "turns" - she'd walk around and suddenly look like she was lost. Nothing like the dazed look I've come to know with insulinoma. Oh no. I honestly thought she had Alzheimers! She'd stand there and look left then right as if to say "Which way I am supposed to go!"

Then on Christmas Eve I had a scare when she had some totally weird breathing problems. She was lying in our bed after having one of her "Alzheimers" confusion sessions earlier and she seemed okay until I heard a really strange noise coming from her.

Her breathing started off slow then got progressively faster then went back to normal and it kept on going like that for a while.

I had her on my chest and was stroking her and when I moved her back onto the bed, my nightie was wet where her mouth had been. Her mouth was open, her lips drawn back and I thought I was looking at her death mask, I really did. I got out of bed, grabbed a towel, put it on the bed between us and put Kahlua on it and I honestly thought that she wasn't going to be with us for much longer.

The rapid burst of breathing went on for about an hour, then she started making an odd clicking sound. You know you can get those tin clickers out of Christmas crackers or whatever - that was the sound she was making when she was breathing. There'd be 3 or 4 clicks then silence, then 3 or 4 clicks again.

By this time it was close to midnight and she suddenly went all quiet. I felt her stomach and couldn't feel her breathing so felt her paws and her nose. I turned on the light and saw that her neck was arched, although nothing like Muis' or Kaos' necks when they were in their death throes, so despite seeing that and feeling her body and finding it still warm, I had convinced myself she was on death's door.

At this stage Philip woke up and asked why I was snottering, so I explained that I thought Kahlua was dead. He felt her and said, "No, she's fine."

I scowled at him and said, "No way! She's dying, or dead now!" and he said "Feel her!"

I did and she felt warm and was breathing perfectly normally. Next thing I know she wakes up and wants to get off the bed, so I put her on the floor and she toodled around before climbing into the drawer (of the chest of drawers) and going to sleep.

I was exhausted, I can tell you, and count that night as the worst Christmas Eve I have ever had!

Then on January 2, we were walking out of the kitchen to head for the bedroom and I saw Kahlua lying splat on the floor near the linen cupboard. I spoke to other ferret owners and they all thought it was a heat thing but, although it was warm at the time, I still had my doubts.

Took Kahlua to the vet and she checked her out and said there was nothing she could find and, since I had no definite symptoms, there was basically nothing I could tell her apart from her "odd behaviour".

THEN it happened.

On Sunday morning (the 10th) I walked into the sitting room and found her lying on Zac's bed, completely floppy and totally out of it, even though her eyes were open.

I took her into our bedroom and got some Nutrigel, rubbed it on her gums and got a syringe full of smoothy to give her. Well, within a few seconds she was licking the smoothy from the end of the syringe and seemed perfectly fine. I put her down on the bed with the smoothy bowl and although I had to hold her upright, she was licking the liquid up with great gusto.

* sigh *

I called my vet first thing on the Monday morning but she was away till Wednesday and obviously the staff there wouldn't give Kahlua any prednisone without the vet's say so.

So there we go ... I was totally fooled by Kahlua's confusion as it was nowhere like CJ's or Muis' dazed look. Then the strange breathing session and the way she lay "splat" on the floor - I reckon now that that was a mini-blood sugar drop.

I have a new sig file ..."The more I know ferrets, the more I know I don't know!" and I can't tell you how true that is.

It's my 16th year of ferret ownership and I'm still scratching my head wondering if I have it right and am doing the right thing by my babies!

To all my ferret friends - here's wishing you all a wonderfully vet-free 2010!

Yes, take your babies to the vet for their vaccinations and check-ups but I hope there are no serious visits to the vet.

Let's all have a fabulously illness-free year ...! Wishing you all good, healthy vibes coming from my gang to all of your ferrets and have a truly great New Year!

With lots of love and dooks to all .........