>Adrenal symptoms may come and ago.  The ferret may appear to be "fine"
>when indeed adrenal disease exists and tumors are growing.
 
Ditto.  If there had been just one of those symptoms and it hadn't been
marked in degree, and then it went away, I'd think "Well, it might be
something else." but with two symptoms concurrently I'm more inclined to
think that it is simmering in there.
 
>I have read, there are feral ferrets thriving on the Hebrides,
>which are a group of islands just off the west coast of Scotland.
 
Ah, many differences exist.  Here are just a very few: Polecats are wild
stock, not domestic stock.  In that area the rabbits form colonies which
makes hunting easier than the loners we tend to.  There is not excessive
summer heat.  Here's the biggie: the polecats grow up with parent killed
game and are imprinted on those foods in their early ages.  Even notice
that it is easier to introduce ferrets to new foods while they are kits?
That is because of the ways the imprinting can narrow what a ferret
considers acceptable food.  Furthermore, they have been taught to hunt.
In CA there are serious predators, some of which would eat the ferrets
and others of which could easily out-compete ferrets for the same food
sources or the same dens or both.  The list could go on.  Others have
written very good reports on this, but you'll find that probably the best
single one is one of Bob Church's.  I don't have an addie where it is
handy, but try http://www.ferretcentral.org and fan outward from there
unless someone can give you the exact location.  BTW, even BEFORE ferrets
were usually sterilized here there were many attempts to form feral
colonies (and ferrets first came over here during the Colonial Era), and
they just did not survive.  That has been true in multiple locations in
the U.S.  Of course, we have the prey differences and the other predator
differences in many places here, and even over in Britain American Mink
brought in for fur stock which got loose have out-competed polecats in
many areas causing survival problems for the polecats.
 
>To the person who said, "I can see why they're illegal in New York City,"
>I would like to know what you mean by "safety." Lots of us have ferrets
>here and we have as much right as anyone else.  They are perfect
>apartment pets--small, quiet, don't smell.  How do you think New York
>is different from any other big city that we should be singled out?
 
I was also confused by that statement so will be curious what safety
issues were meant.  The ones the health dept. has used have been
foolish -- such as them for a while not being aware of the USDA approved
rabies vax since 1990, not knowing the CDC work, not knowing the low bite
rate stats, etc.
 
I also don't see why NYC would pose more of a health risk to ferrets than
any other city would.
 
So, I am confused, that's all, and suspect it is just normal
communication confusion.
 
As you know, most of the time it's just deep sleep, but now and then it
can be due to early insulinoma, so if a ferret who is 4 or older starts
doing this more often go to the vet and check those blood glucose levels!
I had a bad scare with Sevie not long ago.  She is the one with an
insulinoma tumor in a location which could not be removed (unlike two or
three others) and who also has a very serious heart condition in which
the chambers do not communicate with each other (Complete A/V Heart Node
Block).  Found her not only not waking up but slightly cool to the touch,
curled up into a loose C and holding the shape when i picked her up.  It
was a small convulsion which presented that way.  Some ferrets will
sleep more and more deeply with insulinoma, too.  (BTW, sometimes when
her heart symptoms are worsening we need to adjust her heart meds but
sometimes we need to adjust her blood glucose meds instead.  That would
NOT be true for other heart conditions, but it can be true for A/V Heart
Node Block since in ferrets it is an unusual -- but also not usually
looked for -- complication of low blood sugar.  So far, she has been
having 7 and 1/2 good months with this worst level of heart block.)
[Posted in FML issue 4022]