I lost a 1/4" square piece of my nose to a ferret, but the situation
was a extreme one -- and that is not at all an exaggeration.  Besides,
it almost never shows.  We have learned between Steve having a section
removed surgically due to a growth (benign) and Shermie clipping me that
the nose regrows remarkably well.  I wonder if it is because it often
grows through life?
 
No one here except us and our vet knew the cause; I told others that I
had clipped my nose on the outside wooden stair edge.  Since another
neighbor almost separated his nose that way it was easily accepted.
 
Anyway, Sherman had been through surgery and despite attempts to keep
him calm (I am kind of the chief town crier for "no climbing" post-
surgically and have been for maybe 2 decades.) he had injured himself
internally post-op at home by attempting a leap against the door barrier
(Afterward we had to dope him up for a week.).  I was helping Sherman
when an outside noise scared the bejeebers out of him.  THE FUNNY THING
IS THAT I THOUGHT LIKE A BIOLOGIST THE ENTIRE TIME.  First there was the
canine puncture.  Canine punctures tend to form starred slits like a plus
sign +.  I felt that and I already knew it.  Then I felt the incisors pop
through the skin and scrape.  Now, interestingly, I had tended to think
of their incisors in terms of mainly grooming especially since they are
so short, but the clip and scrape by the incisors perfectly meshed with
the inside slits from the canines.  So, it was puncture and lacerate,
complete the edges of the square with the incisors, scrape and swallow.
It left a missing square with two lacerations radiating out to the sides
from the middle of the square.  Then Sherman looked horrified as he
apparently realized what had happened.  In his entire life he never bit
me again.  Like I said, the circumstances were extreme; he was injured,
he was in severe pain, and then when I almost had him settled enough to
be helped that terrible noise suddenly occurred.
 
BTW, years later, when Sherman suddenly developed a severe allergy to an
antibiotic -- which is what finally killed him despite his always being
medically challenged -- he actually held on to life until we could get
back to the hospital to see him the next day and then would not leave my
arms.  He died in my arms.
 
I've been bitten by a range of animals in my life and this certainly was
not the worst bite I have taken by a long shot.  The worst bites I have
had have all involved primates.  An Ateles bite almost cost me a hand to
spreading infection inside the bursal sheath but I got lucky.  Even
decades later I still have a netting of chimp bite scars that haven't all
faded away from my years working with them.  And then there was my first
serious primate bite -- my kid sister almost cost me a nipple in my early
formative years when she was a lot younger, jealous of my just starting
breasts and sharing a bedroom with me.  (She also later bruised one of
them so badly that the doctor then had my mother buy me a well padded
bra at an early age for protection.  You KNOW that I got ribbed at school
for changing overnight, and I was too embarrassed to say why.)
 
I find that ferret bites are rare when they are raised to have trust, but
as with any other domestic animal they can happen if the circumstances
are extreme enough.
 
I have also found that they are nothing compared to jealous kid sisters.
[Posted in FML issue 5017]