Gosh, it just hit me that there actually were 4 poisoning cases I was
seeking info on over a space of two days to help the ferrets' people,
not 3 cases.  Sometimes things just clump.
 
Anyway, I am now very sensitive (downright tender) about people having
ferrets accidently poisoned, so, please, DO read about precautions
beforehand so that such accidents can be avoided.
 
If you have a ferret die of unknown causes in a situation where poisoning
is possible be sure to add toxicology as well as pathology done on tissue
samples after the necropsy.  (A plain necropsy tells very little; also
ferret tissues begin breaking down anywhere from a couple to a few hours
after death (gall bladder and then GI tract and pancreas) to 2 days after
death when the tissues are pretty well useless for finding out anything
helpful.  Do not freeze the remains or most of the pathology needed
becomes impossible.)
 
Please, if you learn first you can sometimes avoid a problem and that is
truly best.
 
BTW, I was wondering, given the ferrets and dogs with kidney failure:
since grapes are so good at taking up iron and raisins are very high in
iron if anyone has looked at whether grapes might also uptake and set
in the fruit some other heavy metals.  I know that some other possible
causes have been looked at already (the sorts of things a person thinks
of off-hand like the pesticides, fungicides, etc.), but not if anyone
looked for heavy metals.  Of course, the cause may be something intrinsic
to grapes themselves, like one of the skin phytocompounds which are so
useful for human health.
 
-- Sukie (not a vet)
Ferret Health List co-moderator
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives fan
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
replacing
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
International Ferret Congress advisor
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5108]