These should help: Go to: http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG13036 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG12859 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG6520 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG3973 You'll find further useful posts there. We had one with mouth sores from kidney failure (secondary to a Complete A/V Heart Node Block that was able to be managed for 7 months) recently and the vet had a suggestion that shocked us with how well it worked to give comfort and help heal the resulting mouth sores: Listerine. I am not joking. We used cotton swabs to apply it and it worked wonderfully! Rachel, adrenal disease can cause skin sores which can come and go. There are some fine vet and experienced ferret-people posts on that in http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org. I suspect that some FML folks who have been through that will likely mention their experiences with such sores here on the FML to help you. Kat, I think that he was thinking of the most extreme cases where people use AC INSTEAD of seeking vet care or weigh the AC's ideas OVER the vet's experienced and schooled examinations and testing. I know it sounds unbelievable to someone like you who does seek vet care but such things do tragically happen at times; there sadly are those who abuse their animals by withholding veterinary care. Luckily they seem to be in the minority. >I provided studies to the contrary that stated they are not necessary >and an article from the JAVMA that said their is no scientific evidence >to back up annual vaccinations. In ferrets the needed data to make such a statement is lacking a this point in time. The statement may be true for some vaccination types and/or may be false for some vaccination types. There is not yet the data in ferrets specifically to know. This is another topic for which the site I give above has some GREAT posts by vets and others who know their stuff. Not all vaccines behave the same way in different types of animals. For example, there is a wide range of rabies vaccinations out there, but way back when -- gosh, a decent chunk of time prior to 1990 now -- when rabies vaccines were tested some types just did not work at all in ferrets and was eliminated from the line-up at testing, one type worked but had a huge rate of serious health consequences in ferrets and was removed from the line-up in testing, one type worked but protection lasted no longer than 6 months so it was removed from the testing line-up. IMRAB 3 worked and had protection for at least a year. How much more than a year remains unknown at this time as is true for the CDV vaccines in ferrets AT THIS TIME. Domestication: great post. One note for those who may not know (Bob knows.): there are also existing genetic features that were rarely seen but which might wind up emphasized by selective breeding, such as the many ferrets now seen in North America with phenotypes (the presentation of the ferret) that relate to neural crest genetic disorders. While it is a very ancient collection of disorders and seen throughout mammalia and in some herps it wasn't commonly seen in ferrets till folks began selecting for it and preferentially breeding for it (a mistake, actually, that has not been kind to too many ferrets). Neural crest disorder involve so types of mutations of early fetal cells which later differentiate into a variety of cell types so that there is variable expression and can be a range of things seen such as deafness with specific head markings, etc. I found an article Wolfy found which indicates that aortic arch genetic disorder (another subset of early fetal cell defects) may be subset of the neural crest disorders to be interesting. [Posted in FML issue 4099]