Dietary oils/fats do NOT have a laxative effect, in fact, they take longer
to digest so the effect can be mildly the opposite.  For fur balls stick
with things that pass through undigested such as cat laxatives or petroleum
jelly (which you can flavor yourself if that works for a finicky one).
 
Elderly Meteetse is sick, but is doing okay for now.  Not sure what it is,
yet.  Yesterday she just suddenly was having labored breathing and a pale
nose and pale gums.  She looked fine when we got the vet, but we opted for
an x-ray to be safe.  The chest cavity was too cloudy to see her heart.
Could be a lung infection or could be heart disease.  She will be having a
sonogram to be certain and meanwhile is on antibiotics in hopes that it is
a curable bacterial lung infection.  Can't completely rule out that she
might have whatever that virus was that made our internist send me to the
hospital emergency ward for the first time in about 20 years, but that was
three weeks ago and who even knows if that was/is something ferrets get.
Since I bounced back very rapidly after the worst was over and my dangerous
period only lasted about half a day, if The Fly has the same thing I hope
that she recovers as comfortably and rapidly.  Meanwhile, we are being
extra careful with her, and we're delaying 5 year old Warp's insulinoma
surgery till we are sure there is nothing contagious for her to get while
she's compromised for a while afterward; her Pred is holding her happily
and comfortably, no need for even Proglycem at this point.  Aside from that
everyone is doing very well and making as much mess as they are wont to
create.
 
E.L. wrote:
>Seventy-two inches of intestine in the ferret that was necropsied
>here in my vet's lab.  And you know what?  Not one bit of food in
>the stomach or intestine - only 20 millimeters of feces just inside
>the anus.  Does this suggest that this ferret ... was starving?
 
If that ferret was destroyed immediately and this was a standard pattern
for the animal then that is consistent with what has been published about
attacks from any types of pets by humane groups which have researched the
issue in general: the vast majority of the animals invloved (and often the
infants/children) are typically at the least neglected and often also
abused in households where attacks occur, which boils down to the exact
same point: the adult humans are to blame -- for the abuse which damaged
the animal's behavior, for not keeping pets and infants separated, etc.
People who CREATE these situations don't have a lot of sympathy in our
home, though we do hope that they finally hear the wake-up call and change
their behavior.  Yet, given how some of these people seem to place blame
on the critter (given the participation by some in anti-ferret efforts) my
guess is that too many are pass-the-buck people rather than learners, and
therefore, likely to repeat though perhaps with another animal type.  (BTW,
I curl 30 pound dumbbells -- down from my high of 50 pounds but I hope to
get back there by the time I turn 50 next year.  Interesting gender-bias
generalizations made -- invalid garbage -- but interesting for reasons
totally unrelated to your "points".  The liability aspect was a very good
point, though.)
[Posted in FML issue 2741]