To Barbara Carlson concerning her recent loss of Keesa:
 
        Barbara, I sympathize with your loss, and offer my condolences.  It is a
great loss when any of us loses a ferret, but even greater when one of us
appears to be needlessly blaming themselves, as I think is happening in your
case.
 
        A bath would not have resulted in your pet's death overnight.  Ferrets
don't catch colds from bathing, they contract colds from the transmission of
viruses.  And I've never seen a cold kill a ferrret, especially not overnight.
Such a rapid decline indicates something else entirely.  I can't say what, but I
can tell you it wasn't the bath you gave her.
 
        Take care of yourself, and those other ferrets of yours....
 
       Bruce Williams, DVM                 Department of Veterinary Pathology
       [log in to unmask]         Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
       (202) 576-2453/2454                 Washington, D.C.  20306-6000
 
[Posted in FML issue 0944]