>Ok, correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that ferrets >in the UK *do* tend to live longer & have less adrenal problems, but that >it was because of the conditions they are kept in rather than directly >because of the ferrets. Like so many other things, it's one of those "Who knows?" situations. There are long-lived ones everywhere. Are there proportionately more in any given location? NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE. Hard to hypothesize when the numbers don't exist to know if the there is a real difference or not. The next step -- if there is -- would be to try multiple things toward finding out why. Like so many things in ferret health still it's more rumor than fact at this point. I have to tell you, though, that ferret medicine has progressed at a break-neck speed over the last 20 years. Can remember when the only things anyone did with a ferret were neuters and when vets were telling us that 10% of those given anesthesia would die, now we have several vet texts full of precious info out there and a lot of things that are known and performed. Health and longevity first! (To heck with fancy looks if they don't do well when health and longevity records are reviewed.) ----- Allergic reactions (such as vaccine reactions) happen when a body is exposed to an allergen and decides that it is a bad invader, so the NEXT time that an exposure happens it reacts. [Posted in FML issue 3679]