Hello,
My name is JUDI and I am new to ferrets but not to the world human and
animal medicine.  I had a problem with Ed Lipinski's comment about
consumable ferrets.  In particular to the comment
>These ferrets are bred to be as uniform as possible (heavily inbred) and
>their life expectancy is less than a year, in some cases dying only hours
>after being asphxsiated by student nurses attempting to insert trachael
>tubes down ferrets' throats."
 
I have been a nurse for 26 years and NEVER meet a nurse that intubated a
ferret in Nursing School much less in the out side world in general.
Nurse's in general do not intubate patients human or animal in the normal
scope of practice.  To intubate someone you must be trained in the this
area.  The only nurse's that I know of to execute this procedure are
Nurse Practioners in the surgical fields.
 
To the best of knowledge the ferrets on the commercial farms were bred
for reseach purposes.  Many od the diseases that we see are there because
medical science was trying to study ways to correct these problems.  But
when the laws and the loss of reseach grants evaporated so did income so
they turned to the pet market without changing their breeding stock.  So
the pet market is over run with commerical animals that are not from
sound stock.  Only time will tell.
 
That's for letting me get this off my chest.
 
Blessings, JUDI
[Posted in FML issue 3858]