For those who can use it: -20'C is -4'F
so it is not like being in Montana when the snow gets cold to the
point where it squeaks at around -25'F (-31.6C) and he has been in
-50'F (-45.55'C). (Our part of NJ can go down to -10'F many winters
which is -23.3'C, and we have seen -15'F several times in the decades
here which is about -26'C.)

I think that not knowing the conversions causes some people problems.
This will help: http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm

For another example, when people talk about freezing studies that kill
salmonella I think that they too often miss the actual numbers involved
or don't do the conversions, so they miss that standard freezers in the
home and groceries don't reach temps that low. The numbers are -20'C to
-80'C or -4'F to -112. Such studies can be easily searched for an found
in Pubmed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

Examples:
> J Food Prot. 2005 Jul;68(7):1457-61.
> Links
>Growth of Salmonella serovars, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and
>Staphylococcus aureus during thawing of whole chicken and retail
>ground beef portions at 22 and 30 degrees C.
(which is mostly about safe thawing temps but goes into which temps
they froze to beforehand for 24 hours to have reasonable effects)

and
> Cent Eur J Public Health. 2005 Jun;13(2):89-95.
> Links
>Resistance of Yersinia enterocolitica, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and
>natural microflora against acidic conditions and freezing-thawing in
>fresh sausages.

and
> J Dairy Res. 2004 Nov;71(4):451-60.
> Links
>In vitro screening of potential probiotic activities of selected
>lactobacilli isolated from unpasteurized milk products for
>incorporation into soft cheese.

etc.

(BTW, if you search there for
ferret ferrets mustela
you will find a huge number of studies involving ferrets.)

More commonly understanding weights causes difficulties for people who
are giving medications that are in grams or med per kilogram of ferret
weight but are not used to thinking metric or looking it up.

Here is a converter for pounds and kilos:
http://home.earthlink.net/~sensei11/convert.htm

People also tend to think of meds in terms of volume and forget that
concentrations vary in most liquid meds and all compounded meds, so
giving just volume (ml or cc) is like treating chicken broth as being
the same as chicken puree. Just as there is more chicken in the puree,
so too there is twice as much med in a med that has 2 mg per ml
compared to one that has 1 mg per ml.

Sukie (not a vet)
Current FHL address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth
People can join there or can send a blank mail to the automated
joining address:
[log in to unmask]
and then follow the directions.
(The second is recommended for those having problems with Yahoogroups
web settings, and afterward send a blank mail from your subscribed
address to
[log in to unmask]
to get the digest instead of individual mails. )
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

[Posted in FML 5503]