Thanks, Mary!
 
Also learned from Pub Med that there is a study in which it lowered blood
sugar, so that is a concern with ferrets.
 
Turns out that in another study it worsened the depositing of fatty
material in arteries when a high cholesterol and fatty diet was present,
and it also lowered the naturally occurring forms of co-enzyme Q
(chemical aspects vary in species with some species utilizing Q-10,
others Q-9, etc.).  Ferrets do have high fat and high cholesterol diets
(and the mammalian body makes cholesterol from fat which accounts for
most bodily cholesterol) and ferrets are not prone to arterial disease
except for occasional genetic ones I recall who didn't have good
bilateral coloration of the head which turned out to be due to an Aortic
Arch Defect so they later died of the problem.  (For those who don't
know; there are some forms of genetic defects in which the protocells
which lead to various later forms of more specialized cells are altered
in bad ways.  One of these groups is called Neural Crest Disorders and
includes things like WS, while one other grouping is the Aortic Arch
Defect one in which the head coloration tends to strongly have a
unilateral aspect and the aorta is often malformed.)
 
Didn't know that it could be an anti-coagulant but so many
anti-inflammatories are.  Some ferrets are very tolerant of
anti-coagulants but others get GI bleeds very easily.
 
Like anything else, it has it good properties and it's bad.  There are a
number of studies in Pub Med in which it was helpful in reducing risk or
expression of some malignancies, nad in which it was very useful as an
anti-inflammatory.
-----
 
>As herbal medicine tries to use the purest form of herb, I would not get
>the powder from a grocery store, but a health food store.  Many of our
>grocery imports are irradiated at our place of import (not at the
>exporters).
 
That doesn't matter; it is a safe process.  Steve's doctorate is in high
energy physics and put most concisely: the food is not radioactive.  It
merely kills organisms which could be in the food and which do pose
health risks.  My favorite story of tagging along health risks involves
the small walled cities of Europe which now and then would be be turned
into asylums because the grain brought to the communal bakery was tainted
with ergot and the city driven insane by that fungus.
-----
 
>Another reason for shortened tails is a genetic defect mainly in true
>born dark eyed whites.  Sometimes when two dew's are paired together
>their offspring can have tail defects.  These can range from kinks and
>bends to short curled tails.
 
There are FHL vets' posts on genetic defects that can be involved:
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
and
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/
 
We have little boy who lost his due to gangrene from an injury that
happened before he was given to a local shelter.
-----
 
Lupron: There is one on-going study to see if it might slow growth of a
tumor (with early indications that it might), and another to see if it
might reduce the chances of a second one developing.  (I don't know how
formal either study is or if publication is the goal, but each is by a
ferret vet.) In addition, controlling some the symptoms often improves
quality of life, so from that regard it might be called a treatment even
though surgery is certainly preferable.  That help?
[Posted in FML issue 3890]