When it comes to ferrets, I am a self proclaimed stupid ignoramus.  Both
these words seem to fit me quite well.  I am ignorant as to the "truth" of
many things, and stupid in sometimes believing what others are sure is
false.  And vice-versa.  Are you a stupid ignoramus?  Wanna start a club??.
Let me give you some examples see if you are worthy of membership :
 
1. When I first brought home a ferret, I was given a large dog cage to put
the ferret in.  She easily slipped through the bars.  I was given the
softest rubber toys and told that they were for ferrets.  Baby pooped out
several of those soft rubber pieces before I figured out for myself what
my baby should have or not have.
 
2. I read that ferrets lived in Egypt, and told several people that this
was one of the places that they lived.  I looked all over our museum for
pictures of ferrets on Egyptian artifacts without success.  Now I read that
ferrets were never in Egypt.  How do these falsehoods get published??
Which is the falsehood?  How do you KNOW??
 
3. I read in a ferret knowledgeable book that ferrets could be bathed every
two weeks.  And so I did this.  We think that we know now that is not a
good thing to do.  It seems that we should know or not know, think or not
think, and believe or not believe.  But I don't read "I believe that
ferrets can be bathed once every two weeks without drying out the skin of
the ferret"  In what I read, things are stated in terms of "I know."
 
4. I read an article that said I was to scruff my ferret, hold it six
inches away from me and say no firmly and loudly while pinging the nose to
stop bad behavior.  I did this.  Tiger was afraid of me , and hid whenever
he saw me-for over a year!!!!!  I terrified and stressed out my tiniest
trembling runt ferret because I believed what I read.  Makes me ill to
think about it.  But it is the truth.
 
5.  I used to let my ferrets have rabies and distemper shots at the same
time because my vets never recommended otherwise.  Now I do not do this.
My vets think this separation of shots is a strange request.  I read
somewhere that this is best, and the reasons seem logical to me.  But who
Knows the truth?  And if we Know the truth, then why are we not all doing
the same thing?
 
6.  I found a vet to baby sit my ferrets from a major ferret organization
that had compiled a list.  I trusted that list of vets without question
and my ferrets were severely ill for over 6 months because of a grossly
dishonest and ferret inept vet.  They never recovered their initial energy.
The current list is out there.  Dr. Susan Brown is on that list.  Yet, She
has not practiced for 2 years now.  Another on that list will tell you they
only see an occasional ferret.
 
7. During their illness, I was told what ingredients to put in their duck
soup by ferret knowledgeable vets.  One of the ingredients was Sustical.
They had to be syringe fed for over 6 months.
 
Now it turns out that I may have given my guys insulinoma by providing
them with this sugary solution for over 6 months.  Yet I was given no
alternatives.
 
8. I learned of The early neuter versus late neuter study from the
Netherlands from a vet who worked closely for years with Dr. Susan Brown-
one of our leading ferret experts.  This study-which I clearly do not have,
nor have I ever read, is found to be insufficient evidence for adrenal
disease in early neuters by someone who is not an exotic vet: not a vet
at all, in fact.
 
If I read the study, what would I think?  Is the study even accurate?
Recent studies in my field were published in our scientific journals.  The
results were so surprising that I could not believe them.  Turns out that
the results were fraudulent.
 
But if this was a poorly done or insufficient study, why was it presented
to me as factual and pertinent by a top ferret vet?  Why was it published
at all?  Were there too few samples for this to be a study worthy of
publishing?  So why was it published??
 
I could go on and on.  But it will not change the sad truth.  I am a
befuddled mess on my best of days: a stupid ignoramus at best.  Are you
worthy of Membership??
 
Lisette
[Posted in FML issue 2946]