Kat, for someone who posts that she isn't "sciency" you sure to have a
good grasp of things that often confuse others.  I liked the way you
used "adrenal" to separate your conjectured scenario from any existing
hypothesis.  Nice touch!  BTW, at the end the conclusions could not be
generalized to ferrets well outside the mold (such as whole ferrets)
and that would need further study.  And right now (Can you tell that
my asthma is turning on again?) I can't recall if you mentioned the
precautions taken in testing to make sure that no one knew offhand what
samples came from what ferrets or what the results were on a preliminary
basis to avoid biasing the study, and the math checks to make sure of
statistical significance.
 
There actually was an intersting study in which research mathematicians
study the results of studies done by folks in human med who are not
researchers by trade (I also am not but Steve is, and I guess a majority
of our friends are, so regular immersion in such discussions has
continued in the decades since I left the halls of the anatomy dept. ...
i.e. I am rusty but as as rusty as I'd otherwise be.).  Anyway, a lot of
human medical research which is done by those who are not researchers by
trade turns out to be poorly designed and have a bad grasp of the nuances
of the math involved, and yet a further part of the study I knew of from
pers.com. was on the interpretation of articles showing that a number of
the medical experts who read studies didn't try looking at how the study
was designed, alternative hypotheses that were not guarded against,
accidently introduced causes of error, math, etc. and as a result could
not or did not weigh the studies for level of possible value.
 
I don't know if those were published or not.
 
>It isn't a matter of do-it-yourselfing, and assuming you can, without
>expert advice, could lead to dangerous or fatal consequences.
 
Bingo!  Perfect!  That's it in a nutshell.  True for herbal meds and true
for any other meds, too!
 
>So my concern is-- what happened to all of the ferrets that
>pharmaceuticals were first tried on?...
>Were they then stopped, or challenged?  Thank God Sukie was involved in
>the beginning of some of them.
 
We were hardly alone, not alone by a long shot, in trying things first.
Pretty well anyone who had a ferret longer ago then 15, sometimes then
10, years ago was involved in the first case uses of drugs, surgeries,
etc. so we have a LOT of company.  There are multiple FML members whose
ferrets were the first cases for many medical approaches that are now
considered the norm.  I have put a sample of such -- mentioning the
ferret experts involved (consultants in the paragraphs and treating vets
near the end -- in another post I sent in today.  Others here on the FML
can add more if they want to discuss the topic further.  Hey, if there
were huge contributions to ferret veterinary care research made to places
like the Morris Animal Foundation, multiple vet schools, research
clinics, etc. then things could be tested for ferrets before tried in
use but there aren't so things are pretty well always just plain tried
after serious consideration or when it's a life-or-death situation.  It's
sure not ideal, but it is the reality of how ferret veterinary medicine
has advanced, and a LOT of FML ferrets have been involved with many of
their people right here reading this and and thinking, Yep, been there!".
[Posted in FML issue 3936]