>Ok, correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that ferrets
>in the UK *do* tend to live longer & have less adrenal problems, but that
>it was because of the conditions they are kept in rather than directly
>because of the ferrets.
 
Like so many other things, it's one of those "Who knows?" situations.
There are long-lived ones everywhere.  Are there proportionately more in
any given location?  NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE.  Hard to hypothesize when the
numbers don't exist to know if the there is a real difference or not.  The
next step -- if there is -- would be to try multiple things toward finding
out why.  Like so many things in ferret health still it's more rumor than
fact at this point.  I have to tell you, though, that ferret medicine has
progressed at a break-neck speed over the last 20 years.  Can remember
when the only things anyone did with a ferret were neuters and when vets
were telling us that 10% of those given anesthesia would die, now we have
several vet texts full of precious info out there and a lot of things that
are known and performed.
 
Health and longevity first!  (To heck with fancy looks if they don't do
well when health and longevity records are reviewed.)
-----
 
Allergic reactions (such as vaccine reactions) happen when a body is
exposed to an allergen and decides that it is a bad invader, so the NEXT
time that an exposure happens it reacts.
[Posted in FML issue 3679]