>This cage has the slide spring type latch.No way a fert could do it. Gee, and to think that there has been no reason for us to have an extra latch on a door with the same type of latch. :-) Yes, some ferrets can open these and when they do a second latch added or a spring clip bought from the hardware store works. Of course, it always is possible that someone became afraid that the ferret would die in the heat and took that course, or that someone who also doesn't know better wanted as free ferret, or that someone thought they are wild and freed the ferret, or... ----- Hey, Ardith, thanks for listening to me gripe about the people who, unlike you, don't provide veterinary care for their ferrets. Sometimes the upset from encountering that too often just builds up and up, and some of the people write multiple times figuring that if they do that enough I'll somehow grant them absolution for choosing to not give the critters the care they need (which strikes me as really weird on multiple planes from the effect on the ferret to their acting as if I have such abilities/power and such callousness to animals, and on...). Not providing needed veterinary care simply is a form of animal abuse which kills, esp. when it is a failure which prevents what would be life-saving care for an otherwise healthy animal. This is always something that has bugged me and I think it does even more since a related family acted this way and killed a ferret who was only two years old by not providing vet care. Anyway, thank you for listening about those fringe people, and I sure hope that your little one does not turn out to have lympho. ----- >Recently I have had 2 out of 11 Utah kids diagnosed with IBD. The vet >said that he believes IBD is connected to the Corona Virus & stress. Of >course we all know that we have no idea if any of these Utah kids have >had ECE or not, but we know they certainly have been stressed. Yes, there are multiple vets who figure that ECE is one of the things that can trigger IBD forming. Apparently less common, IBD can apparently trigger lympho down the line. There is on-going work to eventually have a vaccine against the ECE coronavirus. Because the dehydration from ECE can damage kidneys, ECE can apparently lead to IBD which can lead to lympho -- I am curious to see how long it takes after people begin being careful to vaccinate against ECE for us to all see fewer cases of IBD, kidney disease, and lympho, though I expect other cases with other causes to still be present especially when those other causes are the primary ones. Because ECE is also more commonly encountered in certain areas that appear to be more prone to certain other problems I am curious to see if we'll see the rates of anything else change, too. Probably NOT, but it's always possible that we might get lucky now and then and that would be marvelous... (Don't go saying "Sukie said" or that there is any connection, anyone; I'm just doing some hopeful wishing here and nothing more substantial than that, so re-read this if you misunderstood in any way.) ----- Stephanie, go to the FHL Archives addy below my name or the FML Archives at http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html and you will find the info you need. Sukie http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth (the current home of the Ferret Health List with it's conversations, ever growing extensive Files, and other helpful features) http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/ (the easily searched site which holds the Ferret Health List Archives) http://geocities.com/sukieslist (a site given to me which I simply have not had time to learn to update so some of the links are no longer active and the FHL link is the old defunct one so instead use the one right under my name) [Posted in FML issue 3884]