All,
 
I bought a Marshall 20' tunnel about a year ago when I got my youngest
Ferret, Lizzy Liz, a Blaze, as a baby for kicks.  My group enjoyed it
immensely, but she pooped in it so I threw it out (even though the
tunnels are plastic and cleanable, the only way to get rid of the smell
is to use chemicals that I decided wouldn't be appropriate to expose my
ferrets to).
 
I just started a new job and career and decided to but the weasels a new
tunnel.  The thing looks like a slinky, so is easy to shrink and expand
to create different trails for them to be interested in.  Also, it is
easy to shrink and put away after playtime, so we reduce the chance of
another poop incident (I think I had the tunnel in a curve, and Liz took
a nap in one end and then simply "found a corner"... oops).
 
Anyway -> boy oh boy do they enjoy the tunnel.  Sandy (a nearly 6 year
old pure albino who has 2 surgeries over 14 months, last one was last
June, who now has no more adrenals, spleen, and a reduced size pancreas
due two 2 insolinomas, plus 2 benign liver tumor removals, an intestinal
blockage, and portal hepatitis) LOVES her tunnel.  She slides through it
upside-down and turns 180 degrees in the middle (that is a real sight).
Also she runs through it, climbing right over any of the other ferrets
as if they are simply road bumps.
 
Sandy gets percortin shots every 4 weeks and is now being weaned off her
0.3cc pediapred because her sugar level switched from being low to being
high.  Apparently as we have reduced here prediapred, her sugar has been
moving to normal levels (which is lucky because sometimes the pancreas
"burns out" and then you treat them for diabetes).  Dr Weiss also thinks
this is an effect of ferrets living so much longer than animals with
similar diseases, that we are seeing a new phase in her condition where
here insulinoma may have actually ended (fingers are crossed - diabetes,
the other possible problem, is treated without the surgery that
insolinomas require)!
 
So, good news, and go out and get a tunnel!
 
Mark h.
[Posted in FML issue 4348]