OK. This is for everybody out there who peruses this medium.
 
Are you, as am I, disturbingly concerned by the tremendous number of reports
about sick ferrets published here daily, as has been the case for a long
time?
 
It appears that the vast majority of reports are from owners who beseech
help, either for veterinary medical advice, for solice, or for sympathy for
the imminent or recent death of their beloved ferret.
 
I haven't made a specific count to be sure, but it seems overall that the
sick, dying, and/or dead ferret reports outnumber the healthy ferret reports
by two or three to one.
 
With certainty there may be those who would offer a statistical or even an
emotional response for the apparent, very sad state of affairs when it comes
to ferret health.  Or there are those too, who I suppose would argue with my
assessment, maybe because I address a subject that may be offensive to some.
 
But, and let me go to the meat of the apparent problem: is there a more
profound, more basic, more fundamental reason why the pervasiveness of ill
health exists?
 
Folks, we're doing something wrong; what is it?  Wherein doth lie our
ignorance?  Why is the incidence of cancer so grievously high in the "sissy"
ferret?  From my perspective, somewhat limited to be sure, but the "real"
ferret appears so much more healthy than the "sissy" ferret.  Do you find
this so?
 
The categorization of ferrets into the two basic classes of "sissy" and
"real" is not intended as an aspersion of either, but rather an
oversimplified means of defining the two basic classes of ferrets, as I see
it.  May you or not agree?
 
To me, "sissy" ferrets are those butchered ferrets originating via the
commercial pet stores from commercial, large scale breeding operations,
variously termed "ferret farms." On the other hand, "real" ferrets are those
animals bred from healthy stock, never inbred or crossbred (happens in the
show circuits), and which are not butchered until post-puberty or later, or
better yet, never.
 
Could it be that the artifical environment (indoor of human habitat) to
which the former class of ferret is imprisoned, its anthropomorphisical
rearing in the hands of warm-hearted and loving folks (ladies mostly), its
restriction to commercially prepared ferret foods, and the totally unnatural
behavioral restraints imposed by us, all of this, be the reason(s) for the
apparent poor health and low longevity?
 
So, what do you think, or, better yet, what do you know that I don't?
 
                L'inconnu. [F.]  The unknown.
 
Edward Frettchenvergnuegen Lipinski,  Der Frettchenlustbarkeitsfuehrer !
Frettchenvergnuegen [G.] Joy of Ferrets.  F...fuehrer [G.] Ferret frolics
leader.
 
[Moderator's note: Certainly, when people have ill ferrets, they often turn
to this list for help -- most people don't need the same sort of help for
healthy ferrets.
 
There may or may not be a correlation between the unnatural environment we
provide our ferrets and their lifespan, but continued debating on the FML
has failed to prove much -- people have brought much to the debate on each
side and, in my opinion, have demonstrated nothing other than the existance
of great variablity.
 
I'm not against debate, but in view of the frequency and history of no
resolution I will quickly call an end to it if history seems to be repeating
itself.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 2137]