I figure others here can look up more in recent studies and provide abstracts if they are interested. Anyway, this to part of the info that the three segments of the small intestine are where carnivores like our ferrets and omnivores like us break down the food into nutrients and then absorb most nutrients, that the cecum comes afterward early in the bowel (large intestine). See yesterday's post. Yes ferrets DO have all three segments of the small intestine. Ferrets lack an appendix, though. Rapidly repopulating the symbiotic bacteria involved in digestion after after diarrhea is most essential for digestion of plant matter. Here is the original study on the appendix as a symbiotic bacteria safe house: QUOTE J Theor Biol. 2007 Sep 7; [Epub ahead of print] Biofilms in the large bowel suggest an apparent function of the human vermiform appendix. Randal Bollinger R, Barbas AS, Bush EL, Lin SS, Parker W. Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Box 2605, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Department of Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. The human vermiform ("worm-like") appendix is a 5-10cm long and 0.5-1cm wide pouch that extends from the cecum of the large bowel. The architecture of the human appendix is unique among mammals, and few mammals other than humans have an appendix at all. The function of the human appendix has long been a matter of debate, with the structure often considered to be a vestige of evolutionary development despite evidence to the contrary based on comparative primate anatomy. The appendix is thought to have some immune function based on its association with substantial lymphatic tissue, although the specific nature of that putative function is unknown. Based (a) on a recently acquired understanding of immune-mediated biofilm formation by commensal bacteria in the mammalian gut, (b) on biofilm distribution in the large bowel, (c) the association of lymphoid tissue with the appendix, (d) the potential for biofilms to protect and support colonization by commensal bacteria, and (e) on the architecture of the human bowel, we propose that the human appendix is well suited as a "safe house" for commensal bacteria, providing support for bacterial growth and potentially facilitating re- inoculation of the colon in the event that the contents of the intestinal tract are purged following exposure to a pathogen. PMID: 17936308 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] END QUOTE URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17936308 If you search you will also find that the cecum is one part of the digestive system with the ability to slow intestinal motility. The statement that has often been made that plant matter is digested there is incorrect, though. ---- I got a mail about the specializations of of some species which are extreme herbivores, the ones that aren't just breaking down tender leaves as omnivores comfortably can, but dealing with low nutrient and highly fibrous plants such as mature grass. BUT that is a specialized situation in one direction, just as strict carnivores are specialized in a totally different direction. You would NOT expect the carnivora morphology to be descended from a specialized plant diet, and it is NOT descended from a specialized plant diet. The ancestors of carnivora were omnivores and insectivores who then trended in their own specialized direction. For that reason the comparison of carnivores to long term omnivores (such as the human line) is a more useful comparison about function in the discussion about the cecum and the small intestine than a comparison to animals which specialized in their own very different direction. The problem isn't the original noticing of the morphological differences. It's that some folks later took it past that into comparisons of species that are specialized so differently from carnivora that the new and more extreme functional statements aren't applicable for ferret taxonomy, morphology, or physiology, and then made statements that are simply not applicable to the way the ferret GI works. Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 6246]