Q: Bulk. Wawzit?
 
A: The same stuff the brains of the Fish and Gestapo are made of.
 
Bulk and fiber are two different things, although they often used
interchangably.  Bulk is simply the stuff that is not broken down during the
digestive process, like bone fragments, thick skin, fur, gravel, cellulose,
rubber products, and the occasional penny.  (Or in my case marbles.  Between
6 and 8, I must have swallowed 30 of them.  Like now, I didn't have a
clue...) I tend to use bulk interchangable with "dietary fiber," (or
shortened to fiber) with the understanding that it includes non-plant junk.
Many sources define dietary fiber as undigested cellulose, although I have
at least three that defines it the same way I do.
 
Bulk sort of acts like the wadding behind the shot in the shotgun shells.
The shot is so small that the expanding gasses simply go past, greatly
reducing the velocity of the projectiles.  The wadding accelerates to the
speed of the expanding gas, and pushes the shot ahead if it.  In animals,
peristalsis replaces the expanding gas to power the system.  (Ok, there ARE
some systems that seem to be powered by expanding gasses, but lets leave my
personal life out of it, ok?) Bulk works like the wadding in that it fills
the intestine, making it easier for the food bolus to be pushed through.  In
this case, the shot (nutrients) are mixed within the wadding.
 
Has the light bulb turned on yet?  The more bulk, the faster the system, so
nutrients tend to pass through rather than being absorbed.  (In some cases,
too much bulk slows the system down, causing it to drop into the
"brick-making" mode.  This is more of a problem in horses and cows than
ferrets, however).  So, excluding the dangers of caries and peridontal
disease, a ferret could eat a ton of raisins a day with little problems,
provided ample water was available to offset the dehyration caused by the
squirties that are sure to result.  EXCEPT, the other nutrients in the
fert's diet also pass through, so the ferret winds up like those poisoned
tribbles, gorging themselves but starving to death.
 
That is the real trouble with eating too many raisins; not the squirts, but
the loss of important dietary nutrients.  If it happens too often, the ferts
could possibly develop symptoms of malnutrition.  HOWEVER, I have NEVER
heard of such a thing in an animal that is usually caged with unlimited
food.  Raisins are like Chinese food; fill up, and you are hungry again in a
few hours.  What you might miss now, you will make up later.  I personally
don't worry about it, and let them have what they want provided they aren't
as bloated as Stella or sick.
 
One final thing about the ways the "road of life" works.  Have you ever
noticed that when you eat something bad, or if you get a flu, the runs also
come?  That is an evolutionary adaptation designed to help eliminate the
stuff inside the bowel that is causing the problems.  Eat a bad sandwich?
Fill the bowel up with water and wash the sucker out.  We may not like
running to the head every few minutes, but, its a lot better than keeping
the stuff inside.  Before Americans became wimps, doctors would often give a
catharic in cases of suspected food poisoning, but now people want to stem
the flow rather that put up with it, so take stuff to slow things down, and
the recovery process could actually be longer.
 
The chronic runs, such as from ECE, are bad because they act as if the
ferret is on an "all-raisin" diet.  Nutrients pass through, and the ferrets
lose lots of electrolites and fluid in the stuff, and in an animal whose
entire blood volume wouldn't fill a human bladder, things can get very bad
very quickly.  The end result is the little guy gets very dehydrated, their
electrolites are horribly out of ballance, they lack important nutrients,
and generally feels like crap (ho ho).  I have no evidence, but I am leary
of treatments that slow down the poopies, prefering to replace water and
electrolites instead, on the theory that nature knows best.  (This is also
like a fever.  While really high fevers are bad, low fevers are not; they
kill the viruses and bacteria causing the problems, and shorten the length
of the disease.) I give fatty chicken soup thickened with yogart, and it
works about as well as duck soup from my experience.  Good for your other
kids as well.  My childhood neighbor's grandmother would feed this to us
when we were sick.  I think it had a Yiddish name, but I've forgotten it.
 
Now, I have a question for the list.  ECE appears to be a mostly American
and Canadian disease.  Another American/Canadian trait is low-bulk kibbled
foods fed almost exclusively to the ferrets.  Has anyone feeding ferrets a
high-bulk diet developed ECE, and if so, how bad was the occurance?  I have
no data, but my gut tells me there could be a correlation.
 
Bob C and the 17 Mo' Sofa Sharks
[Posted in FML issue 1911]