James Wilkinson wrote:
> 1. High Temperatures:
>I do not see how high temperatures will affect the health of ferrets or
>any other animal.  That is if that animal has had a proper transition
>period to get use to the higher temperatures.
 
Hmmm. I haven't heard about ferrets acclimating well to temperatures
above 85 degrees under any circumstances. In fact, when I worked in a
research facility which housed some ferrets (no, we didn't "torture"
them) the HVAC was turned off on the ferret floor for "upgrading" (ha).
We recorded a gradual rise in temperature of about 2 degrees in the first
24 hours (baseline 69 degrees F) 5 degrees the second 24 hrs, etc, by the
end of the week it was up to 90 degrees and the ferrets were showing
signs of stress. i took the ferrets into my office and refused to put
them back until the building administrator fixed the problem. the
committee on animal research and our 2 clinical veterinarians backed me
up on this, saying "ferrets cannot tolerate temperatures over 85 degrees.
end of discussion." were we all wrong???
 
hrg
[Posted in FML issue 1329]