Non-vet ramblings:
 
Someone asked if lymphoma is contagious among ferrets.  I've read that
(like in adrenal tumors) clumpings have sometimes been seen.  This doesn't
mean that the disease itself is contagious.  From what I've read it's
suspected that there can sometimes be disease TRIGGERS which can be
contagious (such as some viruses) and can interact with other factors such
as personal susceptibility or some possible environmental aspects.  As I
remember, Susan Erdmann was doing a lot of work on this, but you'll have to
recall that some triggers of certain serious human diseases have taken
decades to uncover.
 
One thing you might want to do for an animal with any cancer is to be
careful to not expose it to too much light at night.  I've often wondered
if (being descended from burrowing animals which tended toward crespuscular
and nocturnal activity) we wind up often not giving our ferrets enough
protection from light.  Steve and I are among the guilty as charged on this
when we are between having boxes the right size.  (Shoe boxes work well.)
There's a marvelous article in Science News, volume 154 (Oct. 17, 1998),
pages 248-250, which I wish I'd had the time to get to sooner.  It's a
follow-up on an assortment of light and melatonin studies (though I wish
they'd included mention of the study which involved behind the knee
exposure having effect); anyway, light overload (which can happen at some
very, very low levels for certain lighting -- like blues and greens --
especially greens) really reduces melatonin production, which in turn
appears in multiple studies to spur more rapid growth of cancers and
increased rates of cancers.  The cancer rate studies upon those without
eyes or blind somewhat varied on which cancers were affected, but it's now
known that melatonin rhythms vary among the blind the well and needs to be
taken into account.  There were consistently extremely lower breast cancer
rates found in humans blind from optic damage (incredibly lower --
everything has a good side as well as bad one), and sometimes other cancers
also showed up as greatly reduced.  What does this have to do with ferrets?
The most affected cancer rates and cancer advancement rates were those of
HORMONAL CANCER types which is what ferret adrenal malignancies are.  (Not
all ferret adrenal growths are malignancies.) It strikes me that folks
(especially those with ferrets which have already had adrenal malignancies,
or which currently have them) might want to offer increased light
protection and if night lighting is used may want to NOT use greens or
blues JUST IN CASE.  I think a number of people might want their reference
librarians to get them copies of the article.  As one of the researchers
(neuroendocrinologist Russell J.  Reiter of the University of Texas Health
Science Center at San Antonio) interviewed said, "...light is a drug ... by
abusing it we risk imperiling our health".  This is a very interesting
article!
 
In case anyone wonders, there most certainly ARE ferret parallels in the
other post.  One important one is just plain old level of exposure; I've
OFTEN heard from vets that shelter animals wind up exposed to more things
simply because of the rate of transition among animals.  (BTW, as shelter
folks will testify this doesn't stop them from having their share of
critters who grow to be strong and happy elderly rulers.) Disease exposure
and rate of everyday illnesses is a tricky thing; some may trigger nasty
things in those susceptible, but others may help improve the immune system
long term.  George Williams co-authored a marvelous book on the
evolutionary aspects of disease which might interest some here.
 
Sukie (so glad to have a few hours of peace and quiet after so long, before
tonight's meeting -- Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...)
[Posted in FML issue 2496]