I seem to recall some people who were using tea tree oil or lavender
oil on ferrets.  It might be a bad idea.  New research into breast
development in young males who had not been using other things which
can have this effect led researchers to study these two oils.
 
> Bloch contacted Derek Henley and Kenneth Korach of the National
> Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle
> Park, N.C.  In their lab, the two investigators exposed human-breast
> cells to lavender oil and, separately, to tea tree oil.  They found
> that each oil turned on estrogen-regulated genes and inhibited an
> androgen-regulated gene.
 
With ferrets already prone to too many endocrinological problems these
are very likely best avoided at this point.
 
> "These oils possess both estrogenic and anti-androgenic properties,"
> Henley reported at the Endocrine Society meeting in Boston this
> week.  He adds that the finding is the first to implicate "essential
> oils" from plants in gynecomastia.
 
(See the upcoming edition of Science News.)
 
-- Sukie (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below in my
private posts)
Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love
them:
Ferret Health List
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
AFIP Ferret Pathology
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
Miamiferrets
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
International Ferret Congress Critical References
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5291]