Around here most succumb to a disease IN old age. We've only had one die in her sleep on night maybe 14 years ago and she had severe and advanced Sjogren's (sp?) -- the only ferret we've ever heard of with that and it wasn't diagnosed till we made a many hour trip to a veterinary optholmologist (again sp?) when other specialists were stumped. We were told that the mucus membrane damage from the disease was what took her. Most people who die also die in old age of a known disease. Just think in terms of your own human family: in old age circulatory disease rates go way up, cancer rates go way up, there has been time for assorted damage to accumulate, etc. (Old age typically still beats the alternative!) Well, the same thing happens in ferrets. There are some individuals who get sick and die young, a rate which can be reduced as more vets learn how to treat certain illnesses and better procedures continue to be developed. I know that folks who are new get very frustrated that some of the common but harder puzzles haven't had much in the way of huge advances but there are reasons for that. There was just shocking progress over the last 15 years in the areas which could be easily enough improved with lower levels of donations once enough vets learned ferrets. Now, though, what are left are larger conundrums which will likely take more complex and longer efforts and hence require larger contributions from the ferret community to veterinary universities which study ferrets, to places which fund such work like the Morris Animal Foundation, or to huge clinics which are also devoted to improving veterinary medicine like the AMC -- just like the problems currently faced by the dog, cat and horse people. So, yes, most die IN old age, but with proper vet care the causes are known ones so they also die of a known disease or disorder. I have to say here that I've recently been shocked, dismayed, and appalled by a few (fortunately only a few) who have not been utilizing vet care. THIS LIST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR VET CARE!!!!!!! (NOTHING is!) Nor is this list a substitute for learning about ferrets' medical problems to the best of our own individual abilities and passing the information written by vets for assorted websites on to vets. When a critter is sick there never has been and never will be as useful a person as an informed vet, and sharing one's life with a critter means taking on the responsibility for providing veterinary care; that's part of the symbiosis, and it most definitely is part of the love. Sorry that I got so heavy, but this lack of care recently in a few posts has really bothered me a lot. I recall when we first began to learn what very little there was out there that we called a woman who advertised ferrets. She said that she had 80 (!!!!!!!) running around her home, that they were funny as all get-out, that their lifespans normally were one or two years -- sometimes three. She didn't provide any vet care, you see, had the matings happen willy-nilly, etc. Even then we knew that she should have little ones living normally to around six or older, so we let the authorities know for the sake of the furballs. Can you imagine? That would be like people before medicine and decent hygiene (not talking garishly clean here but talking about the basic sorts of hygiene lessons we all hopefully know or will learn now-a-days). I agree with Ed that when ferrets are moved around they need a vet check FIRST and whenever possible their history should be known. His comments that mink don't have the same protection if a bite or scratching incident takes place and that difficulties could arise as a result is a good heads-up. Just remember Michigan -- what was it 4? or 5? years ago -- when an elderly man with very thin and fragile skin and trembling hands caught himself on something and got a scratch. It couldn't be proven WHERE or how he'd had the skin broken so since he'd held a ferret and MIGHT have caught his hand on a tooth the authorities forced that the ferret be destroyed. The man wanted to do the shot series instead; he really liked the ferret a great deal. The first decision was to not kill, but the state put through an appeal and won by a slim margin. Kodo died -- and was found to be free of disease. Now we have the Compendium on our side for ferrets, though a few localities don't follow it (so know your local laws and rules and regs), but a mink wouldn't have that protection meaning that extra precautions are certainly needed in that regard as well as in relation to shared illnesses. BTW, just a reminder: there is NOTHING as good as using vet checks, careful quarantines, and then if a mysterious illness or death from unknown cause arises also using pathologies (on living and dead) and necropsies to avoid the risk of causing an epizooic (an epidemic among animals). I'd also like to see an increase in the numbers of posts from people in other countries!!!!!!! Of course, sometimes a person doesn't know where a post comes from since some addresses don't reflect that so some non-States posts may be incorrectly assumed by some to come from here, too. [Posted in FML issue 2926]