Diabolique Eleanor D'Artagnan  wrote:
>2. I have been reading a lot of the posts on pine shavings and am a bit
>confused.  I have "A Fun & Care Book: Ferrets!" as one of my early guides
>to taking care of my baby.  When talking about bedding it doesn't mention
>pine at all.  It expressly says no cedar shavings, but nothing about pine.
 
Well, I had wanted to see Lisette's sources -- one was a letter from
someone who is not an epidemiologist, while the other said it was an
incorrect address.  Anyway, my understanding from a several years old
literature review by a doctoral student in epidemiology is that for some
INDIVIDUALS pine can be a problem -- that some are allergic to it, but most
are not.  Do not know if there is anything new by someone in an applicable
specialty; haven't run into same.  Lisette had a ferret who did react very
badly to it with terrible results from what she has written in the past,
so of course, she is left quite gun-shy for a reasonable reason.  We have
used pine pellets (not shavings) in their litter boxes for years with no
problems, but --of course -- if one develops an allergy to it at any time
then there will be problems then, same as if they developed an allergy to
anything else.  Cedar on the other hand is simply bad, bad, bad.
 
See:  http://www.trifl.org/cedar.html
 
MC, interesting comment about aspen you had.  Also interesting was your
note:
>Also need to note, those folks using stove pellets as litter.  Not to
>worry..the heating and extrusion process used to make the stove pellets,
>very efficiently removes any harmful phenols from the wood.  But..if you
>have a choice, get the ***hardwood*** stove pellets.
 
That's useful to know.  Wish we did have a place around here where we could
get hardwood pellets; they are much cheaper.  Our problem is that the
places around here so DO NOT store them in dry conditions.  Instead, they
wind up exposed to rain and the hardwood pellets really get moldy that way.
Have run into a bad asthma situation with them.  Once burned, twice shy...
 
Have been asked to put in updates on elderly Meeteetse and her various
health problems, esp.  the incontinence since other elderly ferrets have
it.  The DES seems to hold her for around 5 days (+/- a half day) taking
her accident rate down to only a few during that time frame, then in the
last few days before her Tuesday DES dose she goes back to having more
accidents but not as many as before the medication.  Think that the mucus
membrane gain isn't quite holding for the full week but it may be that
she will add yet more tissue fullness gradually over time to provide more
support.  She has a blood test coming up this week.  The direction is the
right one and for those 5 days it's a strong change for the better, just a
lesser change for the better the other days.  Basically, she's on hormonal
replacement therapy.
[Posted in FML issue 3151]