OK. This is for everybody out there who peruses this medium. Are you, as am I, disturbingly concerned by the tremendous number of reports about sick ferrets published here daily, as has been the case for a long time? It appears that the vast majority of reports are from owners who beseech help, either for veterinary medical advice, for solice, or for sympathy for the imminent or recent death of their beloved ferret. I haven't made a specific count to be sure, but it seems overall that the sick, dying, and/or dead ferret reports outnumber the healthy ferret reports by two or three to one. With certainty there may be those who would offer a statistical or even an emotional response for the apparent, very sad state of affairs when it comes to ferret health. Or there are those too, who I suppose would argue with my assessment, maybe because I address a subject that may be offensive to some. But, and let me go to the meat of the apparent problem: is there a more profound, more basic, more fundamental reason why the pervasiveness of ill health exists? Folks, we're doing something wrong; what is it? Wherein doth lie our ignorance? Why is the incidence of cancer so grievously high in the "sissy" ferret? From my perspective, somewhat limited to be sure, but the "real" ferret appears so much more healthy than the "sissy" ferret. Do you find this so? The categorization of ferrets into the two basic classes of "sissy" and "real" is not intended as an aspersion of either, but rather an oversimplified means of defining the two basic classes of ferrets, as I see it. May you or not agree? To me, "sissy" ferrets are those butchered ferrets originating via the commercial pet stores from commercial, large scale breeding operations, variously termed "ferret farms." On the other hand, "real" ferrets are those animals bred from healthy stock, never inbred or crossbred (happens in the show circuits), and which are not butchered until post-puberty or later, or better yet, never. Could it be that the artifical environment (indoor of human habitat) to which the former class of ferret is imprisoned, its anthropomorphisical rearing in the hands of warm-hearted and loving folks (ladies mostly), its restriction to commercially prepared ferret foods, and the totally unnatural behavioral restraints imposed by us, all of this, be the reason(s) for the apparent poor health and low longevity? So, what do you think, or, better yet, what do you know that I don't? L'inconnu. [F.] The unknown. Edward Frettchenvergnuegen Lipinski, Der Frettchenlustbarkeitsfuehrer ! Frettchenvergnuegen [G.] Joy of Ferrets. F...fuehrer [G.] Ferret frolics leader. [Moderator's note: Certainly, when people have ill ferrets, they often turn to this list for help -- most people don't need the same sort of help for healthy ferrets. There may or may not be a correlation between the unnatural environment we provide our ferrets and their lifespan, but continued debating on the FML has failed to prove much -- people have brought much to the debate on each side and, in my opinion, have demonstrated nothing other than the existance of great variablity. I'm not against debate, but in view of the frequency and history of no resolution I will quickly call an end to it if history seems to be repeating itself. BIG] [Posted in FML issue 2137]