Years ago it was thought that it MIGHT be possible to diagnose lympho with
blood tests.  Last I read on this topic: this was studied by the idea's
originator (Susan Brown) and others, with the conclusion that blood tests do
NOT accurately and reliably diagnose lympho.  A systemic infection can look
pretty much the same.  To clearly diagnose lympho you need to pull a node
and biopsy it.  Sometimes a needle aaspiration of a node is enough but that
has a higher chance of giving a false negative result.  DON'T LOSE HOPE OF
IT NOT BEING LYMPHO ONLY BECAUSE OF A BLOOD TEST.  Now, it may be that
there's some NEW way to diagnose lympho with a blood test, but each case
I've heard of so far has been that same old disproved hypothesis which can
be in indication for further testing rather than a conclusion in and of
itself.  If I'm wrong, then mea culpa, but instead of giving up hope it
would probably pay to check.  (BTW, there have been some survivors with
chemo treatments such as the Jeglum Protocol.)
 
Noticed some people letting ferrets have styrofoam without supervision.
We've never had a blockage get to the point of needing surgery, but twice
thought it might reach that point: once was styrofoam and once was sponge
"rubber".
 
Dog foods also tend to lack enough taurine; not good.
 
BTW, we personally have never encountered a problem with onion or with
garlic for ferrets though we avoid those for individuals with active
helicobacter or signs of ulceration.
 
Have run into a source of pet-food quality freeze dried crickets for herps.
Plan to order some and try them on the ferrets as a snack.  Should be about
like crab biscuits are for humans I would imagine.
 
About the MF stuff: ANYONE can call up old issues from the archives and read
all the complaints (many recently printed here), the accusations (ditto),
the fantasies in a few cases (such as the Soylent Green thing -- stopped
reading when it became obvious post was a repeat so don't know if some of
these made it to the post), and even the things which were done right by
this company and in relation to this company.  There are breeders whose
conditions are certainly better, and ones whose conditions are way worse.
That there are better and worse might (or might not --since surveys of
AT-HOME pets found no great differences, but a few small private breeders
have reported some long-lived lines through the years) be true with the
critters, too.  Let's put this to bed if it's just going to be a re-hash,
okay.  If there is NEW info on either side of the issue then that certainly
belongs here.  The new poster didn't know this is something which has been
hashed and re-hashed to puree maybe four times every year for too many
years, but most of us know, so let's get on to things we can do something
about.  (BTW, there ARE several groups working to get some actual
improvements, both with specific breeders or with all breeders.  Those
folks work hard and their efforts should not risk being undermined by
peoples' venting.)
[Posted in FML issue 2329]