Dear Carla:
 
Thanks for bringing this to light.  Goes to show that you can't believe
everything that you read.
 
>1. "As I mentioned, ferrets are extremely susceptible to colds and
>flu; they usually die if they contract measles."
 
Flu yes, colds (generally caused by rhinoviruses), no; and measles (as
a spontaneous disease) definitely not.  Now, measles is caused by a
morbillivirus, the same family of virus that causes canine distemper
(perhaps this is where the confusion began.) Ferrets can be infected with
the measles virus in the laboratory via inoculation; however, there are no
reports of ferrets spontaneously contracting measles from humans or other
ferrets.
 
>2. "I recommend a glass [water] bottle, at least if you live in an
>area with hard water. Why? I'll tell you my story. For many years, I
>lived where we had fairly soft water. I used plastic water bottles and
>all was fine. I kept hearing about adrenal tumors, but after 12 years
>of many ferrets, I had never seen them myself. Then we moved to a
>place that has furiously hard water. You can't even drink my house
>water from a plastic cup; it immediately leaches something out of the
>cup and the water tastes of plastic. The ferrets stopped drinking from
>their bottles, and within a few months, I had five cases of adrenal
>tumors."
 
This is an interesting observation, however, there is no proof that soft or
hard water, or plastic causes adrenal tumors in ferrets.  I would submit
that there are probably as many cases of adrenal disease in ferrets in
locales with hard water as with soft.  I can attest to a number of my
ferrets having adrenal disease - while our water is fairly hard, all
these ferrets have drunk from ceramic bowls.
 
It is one thing to make such claims, and we hear them all the time.
However, it is a different subject altogether to make such unreferenced
claims in a nationally published magazine which many naive ferret owners
would use as expert opinion on the care of ferrets.
 
Amused, and with kindest regards,
 
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3255]