I have to write this fast with Thanksgiving coming up and we have a
friend due soon so, PLEASE, forgive any poor wording , missed words
(You know me! LOL!) and mistypings. Hey, I work around mild dyslexia
and poor vision. Everyone's got some things to work around and those
are just among mine.
Maybe 8 to 10 hours ago I sent a post saying that I should have used
quote marks and apologizing for confusion caused by not using them, but
I just got a note from someone who saved my post and this is what she
says that I wrote:
>14. Cooking and food preparation pretty much "predigest food" in that
>they break it down some. This means that such foods are more easily
>digested and that also makes them better for compromised ferrets and
>for at least part of the diet of fast growing ones. The amounts of
>enzymes found in raw foods don't help with digestion because the
>stomach acid destroys them. BTW, this is a hot topic currently in
>human nutrition because it looks like processed foods DO result in the
>uptake not only of more of the other nutrients but also of nutrient
>energy sources (Calories) than their unprocessed ingredients would
>otherwise produce; in other words processed food can get you fatter
>faster.
So, I guess I did indicate that it was not actual, literal
predigestion. See my "mea culpa" post for a clarification and more
info.
Still, I understand that things can be read in ways other than the
way they were written. There won't be anyone here who has never read
something in a way other than the way it was written, or written
something which turned out to be able to be interpreted in multiple
ways, or both. Hey, it happens. No biggie. Besides, I found that post
interesting despite the misunderstanding because that shelter person
who has studied chemistry did not preach but instead simply shared. So,
I guess that is why when "predigestion" was taken as if it had been
meant literally instead of the quote being noticed I just assumed that
I had goofed this time, because after all everyone does goof, including
me, and there is no harm or weakness in being able to admit that.
Also, in that same letter, I was told that a post I did not bother to
read pounced on my mentioning salmonella even though I try to always be
careful to mention that salmonella is not the only problem more common
with raw food, even though I pointed out that with it being the most
common exposure that is a consideration for compromised ferrets
-- and apparently I did specify compromised ones, and that it is
difficult to treat when caught. Why compromised ones? Because unless it
is a large exposure most healthy ferrets resist that disease rather
well, though exceptions have certainly happened, as I apparently also
said in my post a few days ago. Oh, and the article with the recent
percentages in grocery chickens can be found in a past post by using
the archives. If you want to see a list from a ferret veterinary text
of some less common ones I know there are some past posts on that. DO
know, when you see E. coli mentioned in those: yes, E. coli is killed
by sufficient cooking BUT there is a subset of that genus of bacteria
which produce shiga toxin and some shiga toxin does remain after
cooking and it can be enough to cause serious problems depending on how
much was there to start with and other factors like how much is eaten.
Well publicized recalls due to E. coli usually ARE the ones involving
shiga toxin so just return or toss those products. That bacterium is
normally originally from cattle intestines, BTW, so that is why it is
usually ground beef because then any contamination or cross
contamination gets all through it, and sometimes it will be on
vegetable food because of fecal contamination, often from cattle field
run-off or sometimes due to sick people.
These may help:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL1026
The text has more but I notice that not all relevant pages were
available in the sample.
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL1589
I know there are definitely more but don't have time to look them up,
and allow for when they were written and see my note on changes over
time below, please.
Anyway, why Steve and I made our choices will NOT be the same reasons
some other people made their choices, but it DOES pay to know the
downsides of each and every choice because then appropriate actions
can be taken when care is needed due to whichever of the food choices
a person has made. For the same reason it is ALWAYS ESSENTIAL that the
treating veterinarian know what types of food are provided -- many
people these days use multiple approaches -- as well as knowing any
supplements, herbal or holistic things used, any meds given, etc.
That's just basic logic.
When difficulties arise in discussions they typically are NOT from
logical discussions about foods but rather usually about others feeling
that their abilities to make their own choices were not respected or
that people targeted them or their friends. When feeling that respect
has not been given is not the common take from the posts then the one
or few which happen to feel that way tend to be perhaps due to
misreading or careless writing, but when a LOT of people feel the same
way then the writer needs to take those comments into consideration.
You'll notice that my food posts in past years were more strident
because not enough data were in yet. Now-a-days, with rates of problems
from raw foods for healthy ferrets known to not pose as high a rate of
infections as had been feared possible I tend to not get scared for
people's healthy ferrets because while I know it can happen I also
know that the chances are lower than the veterinary community had once
feared and written.
For ferrets who have health issues that reduce the ability to fight
infection the warnings still exist, though, and because there are
reduced rates among healthy ferrets the treating vets must know what
each ferret eats when they are sick and raw feeders may need to get vet
care more promptly with some symptoms than others do just to be safest.
I HIGHLY recommend that anyone feeding something, cooked or raw, other
than the high end ferret kibble buy a copy of _Biology and Diseases of
the Ferret_ edited and partly written by James Fox for the most
inclusive discussion of this. I think that the second edition, the one
with the black cover, is still the most recent one. Why buy it even if
you need to get a second hand copy? The sections on nutrition have a
lot of information that can help with home-provided foods. Also
recommended to assist you is this resource run by someone who has
doctorates in BOTH veterinary medicine and nutrition:
http://www.petdiets.com/
and others already did work for:
http://www.trifl.org/gravy.shtml
Sukie (not a vet)
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/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
On change for its own sake: "You can go really fast if you just jump
off the cliff." (2010, Steve Crandall)
[Posted in FML 6892]
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