Hi Everybody!  Ferrets NorthWest FNW has returned to cyberspace after a long
time away on business other than M.  putorius furo.  Like M.  vison, the
mink.
 
In reply to raw egg querry of 030297 from addressee, now hear this!  (That's
Navy lingo, for you landlubbers.)
 
FNW has included in its home-made LUMPS ferret food at least 5 eggs a day
(plus a lot of other foods) to feed some 20 to 40 ferrets daily.  The eggs
are cooked however, to the point where the non-yolk part, becomes white and
turgid, and hopefully, long enough to decimate populations of Salmonella sp.
bacteria, characteristically present in some raw eggs.
 
Cooking the egg "poached" - the albumin portion turning white, hence the
name, "egg white," - apparently destroys the chemical affinity AVADIN has
for BIOTIN, especially in the ferret's digestive and assimilative processes.
Thus, the AVIDIN + BIOTIN cannot bond biochemically if the AVIDIN is
destroyed by heat (cooking).  This is good for the little dookers, because
were the AVIDIN chemical bonding not destroyed, its bonding with BIOTIN
(always present in the ferret's system in trace amounts) would form a
complex mixture (AVIDIN + BIOTIN) that the ferret cannot utilize.
 
Since the A + B mix is not assimilated by the ferret, it is excreted as
waste.  So, it effect, what happens at the other end is that the ferret's
system is essentially purged of BIOTIN, a compound that is referred to as
vitamin H.
 
BIOTIN is vital to a ferret's good health.  According to Tabers, BIOTIN is
the most powerful life substance known and a great stimulator.  It is active
in concentrations of 1 part/400 billion parts.
 
The next time you pick up a bottle of Ferretone, note that one of the
substances in Ferretone is BIOTIN @ 13 micrograms per 4 milliliters.  This
is one of the reasons why Ferretone is vastly superior to Linnatone for
ferrets.
 
Lastly, FNW has never known a case of Epizootic Catarrhal Enteritis, ECE, or
the green slime, as it is sometimes called.  With approximately 2,000
ferrets having passed through FNW since 1981, all of them fed our home-made
LUMPS ferret food from the day they come in or are born here to the day they
are adopted or loaned, not one case of ECE has been encountered.
 
We must be doing something right, although I haven't a good idea of what it
is!  I sure do wonder if it's our home-made LUMPS ferret food we make.
 
The current speculation seems to point to an elusive "virus of short
duration, as far as detectability is concerned, yet an "infected" ferret
seems capable of transmitting the "virus" for a prolonged period following
initial infection, "cure," and the lack of symptoms thereafter.  Yet I know
of cases wherein one ferret displaying symptoms of ECE in a business of
ferrets has NOT infected its cage mates.  Such happenings seem to cast doubt
on the existence of a virulent "virus" and its infection rate of healthy
(well nourished) ferrets.
 
This is pure speculation on my part, but from my experience, the thought has
entered my noggin that ECE has more to do with nutrition than a "virus."
Sometimes I sure feel a tinge of saddness for all those folks out there
buying up all that expensive ferret chow, when the old farmer has ferrets
just as healthy or healthier and who feeds his ferrets what could be called
"natural carnivore foods."
 
Disease has at least two basic origins: a causitive organism and/or a lack
of health.  Sometimes the causitive organism is latent until the carrier
host becomes malnourished.  Then the causitive organism reproduces huge
populations and we see the symptoms produced.  A good example is
coccidiosis.  I wonder if ECE could have the same etiology?  If it does,
could we call it the Lipinski Syndrome?  Ah, fame at last, and all based on
ferret s..t!
[Posted in FML issue 1868]