I think there has been a misunderstanding here. I have never met either
Sue or Sukie, but I've been on the FML for years and would hate to see
a misunderstanding escalate into bad blood, as has happened before.

First, I was most distressed to hear of Bender's death, Sue. My
sincerest condolences. That's a horrible way to lose a ferret (not
that there is ever a good way). It seems as if we ought to be able to
protect these dear little creatures, to keep them safe, and so often
we simply can't, and it's always heartbreaking.

When I read Sukie's response message, I thought "that's nice, Sukie's
trying to reassure Sue that it wasn't her fault, that probably wasn't
due to the food. Sukie must be tired, though - that was a very abrupt
message."

Then I saw that Sue was indeed taking Sukie's message as a criticism.
And now it seems to be escalating.

Please let's all remember that we can't read faces or hear tone of
voice on an internet post.

Sue, I think Sukie is trying to figure out a medical scenario that
makes sense to her. She felt it was premature to blame the kibble, but
I don't think she ever intended criticism of you. Indeed, in today's
post, she says that you shouldn't blame yourself.

Sukie, Sue is hurting from her loss, and being a medical detective is
not her priority right now. She's looking for comfort, not science, and
it's very easy for objective analysis to sound cold and uncaring. I'm
pretty sure, from years of reading your posts, that you are neither,
but you _are_ a stickler for medical accuracy. And it can be hard to
remember to soften words.

It may be more approprate to get into a scholarly discussion of kibble
and choking in a few weeks, when the hurt is not so raw.

-Claire

[Posted in FML 7146]

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 6 Aug 2011 11:43:22 -0500
From:    Susie Lee <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: checking in on kibble-debates

This is Susie Lee, last surviving human of the now-closed Ferret & Dove
Sanctuary, Inc (see, here? yep, sez "closed!")...
http://ferretanddovesanctuary.petfinder.org

anyway, when we Had been opened, first as The Ferret Rescue of
Pensacola and then as the above-named, in order to stay within our
retirement-income budget to help as many non-humans as possible, we fed
kibble. ferret-kibble until I found out about toxic ethoxyquin in it,
and switched to the purina non-dairy kitten chow with an occasional
little of donated Marshall Farms that smelled like month-old dead
fish dragged up from the bottom of the garbage dumps. Not even the dog
would touch a single morsel of that last. So the only reason I had
for still letting any ferrets eat it was in weaning them off that
horrible-stenchy stuff. We were donated other kinds of kibble along
with turned-in ferrets, too. The 8 in 1 I always gave to the birds,
After the tiny-morsel-sized kibble of the kitten food, some of the
others touted as "for ferrets" well, some of the kibbles "out there" as
we know, are huge...especially in comparison to the tiny kitten-kibbles
which had plenty of the needed protien and most other nutrients the
ferrets needed and never smelled like too-long-dead fish that no other
critter but a vulture would venture near. So I just plain never fed
the big nuggetty stuff to the ferrets and continued to give them
ultra-fresh, comparatively inexpensive and good-smelling mix of the
best kitten-kibbles. All the ferrets we had care of thrived, a few with
cancers even grew well, and more than a few lived to very, very ripe
old ages until the vet-records at our main animal hospital began to
show an average death-age of 9 years because so many were living to 11
and 12 and three lived longer than that. Then, at one point a few years
ago, there were massive pet-food recalls for many brands. Yet Purina's
kitten and Purina One Kitten were not on the recall-lists.
Hot-Diggity-Dang! I KNEW they were okay! During that nearly nightmarish
massive recall-episode, our ferrets, cats and even dog were all eating
the kitten-stuff (our cats and dog would get the day-old changed-out
ferret-bowls' kibble while the ferrets continued to get fresh every
day until I got Purina Dog Chow for the dog and P. cat-chow for the
adult cats with the next social security check). Well, shootskies on
shingels-es with mustard, ketchup, and mayyonaise...after just two
weeks on even OLD kitten-kibble every carnivore in our house was
spoiled-rotten to the kitten stuff! I had to wean the cats and dog off
the old kitten-kibble mixed into their chows!

Anyway, that's about the size of it from our own shelter's history...
the kitten-kibble was already-just-right-sized and softer as well for
the ferrets, whose mouths were more kitten-sized than not and whose
metabolisms agreed perfectly with the overall nutrient-balances in the
non-dairy kitten foods. And this was for the better part of 14 years,
at that. Blessings on everyone, human and non-human, in all ways.

Thanks,
Susie Lee

[Posted in FML 7146]