Yes, Shona, it is possible for poor quality foods to play into (or even
create) assorted lower urinary tract problems by doing things like
raising the urinary pH too high, but adrenal disease is a common cause
in ferrets that should not be over-looked.  By now it has been said so
often how males have prostate problems secondary to adrenal disease, but
females also can have urinary tract problems (and vaginal problems) that
relate to adrenal disease.  We've been there in the past, ourselves, as
have others.  If you wonder if you are encountering a pH problem
resulting in stones then have the pH checked by the treating vet, go
to a food that is better, and read up on urine acidifiers and the like.
There is info from vets on this in
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html and
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/ .
 
BTW, cats need love and protection, too.
 
There have been some good points brought up about shelters.  Yes, when
an animal needs vet care it just plain needs vet care.  On the other
hand, I have heard over a great many years of only two shelters in which
the operators were independently able to assume all the costs involved,
so what happens when donation levels aren't high enough?  Ferrets suffer
because they have to be turned away until more are adopted out, and
shelter people wind up feeling guilty even though they are working their
tails off day in and and day out to help ferrets.  Those shelter people
shouldn't feel guilty about what others don't do or about their own
limitations; that is a misplacing of such a painful feeling.  They are
only human like all the rest of us and they already do so much for which
we all should be grateful.  What I am saying is that each side in this
discussion said things which need to be taken seriously and taken
together in the kindest light.  It would be a shame for it to further
devolve to an argument instead of a helpful discussion of how to better
solve the problems of shelters that are having fund raising difficulties
or having too many ferrets being dumped (Not all arrive in a ways that
allow a shelter to say, "Sorry, but right now we are full.").
 
I just got the weirdest cleaned up fake ferret related viral mail I think
I've gotten yet.  It was to one of my addresses and said that it came
from my other address and it said that it was found to contain a by then
deleted virus that my type of operating system doesn't even get, anyway.
When I expanded the headers that said that it was from me (but with some
weird stuff in there which may implicate a George if that isn't a fake
thing, too).  We all know by now how so many of these have faked origins
in them.  I guess the next step is that the next virus writers won't
even bother faking origins because we're all so used to those that almost
no one even checks anymore.  Oh well, there will still be a clean-up here
since that is Steve's routine procedure at least weekly given how much
mail we get.  We actually know a few people who are aces in computer
security who multi-boot and run more than one operating system for
safety's sake and privacy's sake.  (Don't ask me details because this
is not stuff I understand.)
[Posted in FML issue 4172]