Danee is the most knowledgeable non-vet and non-researcher I have read
on ADV.  I am SO very much looking forward to when our copy of Ferrets
Magazine arrives to read her article!  Did folks here know that ADV has
been found in some types of wild animals?  Besides skunks and minks,
raccoons are among the animals which can get (and pass?) it, despite not
being from the same branch as mustelids (though they are in the other of
the last two offshoots of the canines, the procyonids).  Ferrets Magazine
is always a very good read, and has been ever since Marylou and Melissa
so greatly improved it due to their huge respect and fairness for ferret
people, but this issue will be really special.
 
For the 4 year old losing weight:  you need to do two things.
 
The first is an appointment with a ferret knowledgeable vet.  Are you
familiar with the vet lists which contain names of vets that ferret
people have recommended?  You can find one in the Reference Shelf of
the Files section in
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
another in Miamiferrets
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
and links to some others in
http://www.ferretcongress.org
if the first two didn't give you enough options to get you started.
 
The second is to wean the ferret off that Walmart food and onto better
quality foods.  (This is assuming that the Walmart food is still as bad
as it had been.)
 
Besides past posts look at:
http://www.ohioferret.org/info/nutri_prn.asp
which isn't perfect but sure is very helpful.
 
Just lending a little support to a totally accurate comment in case
anyone challenges it: Bill Gruber, BIG, the FML Moderator, is absolutely
right.  An email is considered copyright protected.  It usually belongs
to the author, but posting in the public are also usually permits the
"owners" of the list to carry it elsewhere, for example, to archives.
When purchased the publishers typically own the work and their
permission is needed for other uses.  Some are wonderful that way, but
others are not.
 
For example, here is just a tiny bit of the info from a law school:
http://www.piercelaw.edu/tfield/copynet.htm
>Although email messages and web pages may enjoy copyright protection,
>rights are subject to several fundamental limits.  For example, only
>expression is protected, not facts or ideas.
 
In things like joining materials and rules for lists that have looked
into legalities a person can usually find that it is acceptable to carry
one's own posts elsewhere, but almost none extend that permission to the
writing of others.
 
This topic has come up before and know that among Bill and posters quotes
from several law schools are in the archives.  (BTW, did you know that
the first protection for intellectual property was patents in Venice for
glassblowing, while copyright goes back to the Statute of Anne which was
later.)  While there is a bit of a gray area in relation to lists on what
might constitute a limited fair use that gray area is much (much, much,
much) smaller than before enough cases existed that supported the
author's and list "owner's" protections.  Yes there have been people who
have found grief after misusing others' writings.  Luckily, most people
are not litigious (and it would be a sad world if that were not true),
but it pays to know that for very many uses having author's permission
is needed beforehand to carry a long, contiguous quote to a place other
than the list where it first appeared so it better to assume that the
permission is needed than that it is not needed.
 
I am staying out of the fight this was mentioned in, in fact, I am
scrolling past much of it on each side and just skimming (an ability
that is so good to have in recent weeks ;-) ), but knowing about
copyright is useful knowledge.
 
-- Sukie (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below in my
private posts)
Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love
them:
Ferret Health List
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
AFIP Ferret Pathology
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
Miamiferrets
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
International Ferret Congress Critical References
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5211]