>Ferrets don't have dander like cats, dogs, and birds True >People can be allergic to ferrets False >If you really love your ferret, you will find ???? >something else to be allergic to Sorry, Randy but you are wrong and an Allergy 101 course is in order. A person can become allergic to just about anything which the body mistakes for an invader. It's not a choice situation, either in terms of what is allergic to or in terms of how bad an allergy gets. There has even been a case which made a medical journal of one individual who is so allergic to ferrets that they threw him into such a bad reaction that it and almost killed him despite emergency medical care followed by hospitalization. It may help to know what an allergy is. In allergies a part of the immune system which normally has functions including fighting parasites begins to mistake other things for invaders, and in some cases it so badly mistakes the nature of the particles that it wages a massive reaction which be deadly within minutes. Luckily, most allergic reactions are mild, but allergies do kill tens of thousands every single year. In reactions mast cells produce too much histamine and that has its effects. If the reaction is mild there can be runny nose, mild coughing, some post-nasal drip, either runny or dry eyes depending on the degree of inflammation, perhaps some GI tract inflammation, or rash or hives. The worst responses have several modes including: asthma's inflammation and clogging in the lungs which causes the person to smother, or the tongue swelling and choking a person to death, or dermal necrosis causing mucus membrane necrosis and sometimes death of outer skin, too, or anaphylaxia may occur complete with bloody runs, drops in blood pressure which can cause fatal results, swelling of mucus membranes that chokes or smothers a person to death, etc. Allergies are a medical disorder and often a fatal one, not a choice for the people who suffer from them, any more than some ferrets choose to have allergic reactions to vaccinations. Finally, of course, ferrets have dander; anything that sheds dead skin cells does. A few even have dandruff. In past discussions of ferrets and allergies to them it has turned out that multiple ferret people have had such allergies though they appear less common in general than those to cats or dogs. One exception: a number of people are set off ONLY by whole males but not to other ferrets, and interestingly it turned out that a number of those people were also allergic to cats. Yes, ferrets can transport things that cause allergies, as well, but they can --- in and of themselves -- be a cause. The idea that allergies are "invented" by their sufferers has been thrown away as an old medical superstition for maybe as long as 40 to 50 years. [Posted in FML issue 3362]