I remember the excitement when Bruce's work with ECE and the work of those
owners he was in constant touch with led to there being a treatment.  We
were all just completely paniced by the illness beforehand.  Now deaths are
not of the vast majority of animals infected, but back then they were.
People would go to shows, sometimes not even taking their animals along and
a few weeks later most of their ferrets would be dead.  The research made an
enormous difference in saving lives and minimizing suffering.
 
Mike, I am wondering if your PA biters are from fur fitch stock (i.e. bred
for fur rather than for pet stock).  Have not seen that for a number of
years, but that's about how many of the fur animals acted when folks tried
to sell them as pet around here years ago.  We took it to the bone from two
of those.  Path Valley is in Willow Hill, not Athens.  One would expect that
to travel that kind of distance the operation in Athens must be a rather
large one, and I haven't heard of another large PA breeder except Path
Valley, which is what leads me to wonder about fitch stock.  You might want
to call Path Valley at 1-800-FERRET1 (the same number as AFA, except AFA is
1-888-) to see if they know anything about the breeder.  Suspect they'd want
to know about a PA breeder who might be giving PA ferrets a bad name since
that would impact on their business.
 
Over the years I have read here of maybe three (3) cases of ferrets which
got their heads stuck in toilet paper or paper towel tubes, and then ran
around in a panic, finally hitting something with enough force to break
their necks and kill them.  We always break up those things.
 
Waardenburg Syndrome exists throughout much (all?) of Mammalia and the types
of possible associated features are pretty consistent; it's degree of
expression and which of the accompanying features show up vary.
 
Re: adrenal temperments.  There WAS a reason why Hjalmar became known as
Pepe L'Peu around here during that, and it had nothing to do with smell.
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 2233]