I figure others here can look up more in recent studies and provide
abstracts if they are interested.

Anyway, this to part of the info that the three segments of the small
intestine are where carnivores like our ferrets and omnivores like us
break down the food into nutrients and then absorb most nutrients, that
the cecum comes afterward early in the bowel (large intestine). See
yesterday's post. Yes ferrets DO have all three segments of the small
intestine. Ferrets lack an appendix, though. Rapidly repopulating the
symbiotic bacteria involved in digestion after after diarrhea is most
essential for digestion of plant matter.

Here is the original study on the appendix as a symbiotic bacteria
safe house:

QUOTE

J Theor Biol. 2007 Sep 7; [Epub ahead of print]

Biofilms in the large bowel suggest an apparent function of the human
vermiform appendix.

Randal Bollinger R, Barbas AS, Bush EL, Lin SS, Parker W. Department of
Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Box 2605, Durham, NC 27710,
USA; Department of Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham,
NC 27710, USA.

The human vermiform ("worm-like") appendix is a 5-10cm long and
0.5-1cm wide pouch that extends from the cecum of the large bowel.
The architecture of the human appendix is unique among mammals, and
few mammals other than humans have an appendix at all.

The function of the human appendix has long been a matter of debate,
with the structure often considered to be a vestige of evolutionary
development despite evidence to the contrary based on comparative
primate anatomy. The appendix is thought to have some immune function
based on its association with substantial lymphatic tissue, although
the specific nature of that putative function is unknown. Based (a) on
a recently acquired understanding of immune-mediated biofilm formation
by commensal bacteria in the mammalian gut, (b) on biofilm distribution
in the large bowel, (c) the association of lymphoid tissue with the
appendix, (d) the potential for biofilms to protect and support
colonization by commensal bacteria, and (e) on the architecture of the
human bowel, we propose that the human appendix is well suited as a
"safe house" for commensal bacteria, providing support for bacterial
growth and potentially facilitating re- inoculation of the colon in the
event that the contents of the intestinal tract are purged following
exposure to a pathogen.

PMID: 17936308 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

END QUOTE

URL:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17936308

If you search you will also find that the cecum is one part of the
digestive system with the ability to slow intestinal motility.

The statement that has often been made that plant matter is digested
there is incorrect, though.

  ----

I got a mail about the specializations of of some species which are
extreme herbivores, the ones that aren't just breaking down tender
leaves as omnivores comfortably can, but dealing with low nutrient
and highly fibrous plants such as mature grass.

BUT that is a specialized situation in one direction, just as strict
carnivores are specialized in a totally different direction.

You would NOT expect the carnivora morphology to be descended from a
specialized plant diet, and it is NOT descended from a specialized
plant diet. The ancestors of carnivora were omnivores and insectivores
who then trended in their own specialized direction.

For that reason the comparison of carnivores to long term omnivores
(such as the human line) is a more useful comparison about function
in the discussion about the cecum and the small intestine than a
comparison to animals which specialized in their own very different
direction.

The problem isn't the original noticing of the morphological
differences. It's that some folks later took it past that into
comparisons of species that are specialized so differently from
carnivora that the new and more extreme functional statements aren't
applicable for ferret taxonomy, morphology, or physiology, and then
made statements that are simply not applicable to the way the ferret
GI works.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 6246]