Dear Kristy:
 
>Anyone hear the new radio commercial for Nyquil?  A woman who has been up
>all night with a cold, and has obviously been reading the encyclopedia says
>to her husband among other things, "Did you know Ferrets have the largest
>pancreas for their weight?"
 
Interesting - I've been saying this for years - based on the number of
ferrets that I have autopsied, and the fact that they have both a jejunal
and duodenal arm of the pancreas (other domestic species have only a
duodenal arm) - but I've never heard anyone else say it.  It makes a lot of
sense - ferrets have the shortest GI transit time of any other species that
I know of - about - 4 hours - so they really have to put out the digestive
juices to make sure that their meat diest is digested before it hits the
litter box.
 
It works out nicely for us, as it has allowed us to do partial
pancreatectomies in cases of insulinoma, because they have extra pancreas
to take up the slack...
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3241]