First off, I just have to say that I was amused to see three or four instances of non-specific symptoms such as sleeplessness, vomiting, and lethargy cited as "medical research" indicating that colloidal silver is somehow an unsafe product which "poisons" those who take it. Hmmm. I've experienced symptoms of that nature several times in my life after taking Pepto-Bismol, or aspirin, or Robitussin, all of which are generally classified as safe products. Generally, though, I wasn't feeling too good before I took the product, anyway, though .. which is why I took it. I don't think three or four isolated incidents prove much of anything. Anyway, Penny asked an excellent question regarding colloidal silver use in ferrets. I've been studying use of this product for awhile (and have used it in myself and my pets - with the blessing of my doctor and vet., respectively). So I'd like to take a couple of moments to share some info. from my notes, medical databases, and the notes from my medical classes. First of all, colloidal silver has been in use for thousands of years, and (as reported by Health Newsline) is used in all major burn centers in the United States. UCLA medical labs found it effective on every virus they tested it on. (Health Newsline, "The Return of Silver in Medicine: Colloidal Silver - Nature's Alternative to Antibiotics"). Science Digest reported in its March 1978 edition that "Silver is finding wholly new uses as a wonder in modern medicine .. perhaps it soon will be recognized as OUR MIGHTIEST GERM FIGHTER". Recent research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has shown that silver is bactericidal to some 650 strains of disease causing organisms and that resistant strains can not develop with silver the way that they will with antibiotics. (Source: www.cyberpet.com) L.C. Ford, M.D. reported in 1988 from the UCLA School of Medicine that silver solutions were effective against vaginitis, salmonella typhi, streptococcus, staphylococcus, neisseria gonorrhea, and other enteric pathogens and found that it was fungicidal for candida albicans and m. furfur. Dr. Robert Becker, M.D., author of "The Body Electric" notes that silver caused cells to dedifferentiate and re-differentiate in the process of regenerative healing. He notes that "What we had actually done was rediscovered the fact that silver killed bacteria, which we had known for centuries .. when antibiotics were discovered, clinical uses for silver as an antibiotic were discarded". (Source: 1995 interview with Bio/Tech News). NASA also uses silver for its antibiotic properties; they utilize silver in their water filters and water purification systems for the space shuttles. The reason for this is that silver not only kills any bacteria present in the water, but it also keeps bacteria from growing inside of the filter itself. So, how does colloidal silver actually work in your ferret to fight infection? Richard Davies and Samuel Etris discussed this in a 1996 monograph entitled "The Development and Functions of Silver in Water Purification and Disease Control". Basically, there are THREE mechanisms of deactivation that silver utilizes to incapacitate disease-causing organisms. These are: catalytic oxidation, reaction with cell membranes, and binding with the DNA of disease organisms to prevent unwinding. Here, in brief, is how they work (paraphrasing from the monograph mentioned above): 1. Catalytic Oxidation: Employing a simple catalytic reduction/oxidation reaction, colloidal silver will react with any negative charge presented by the organism's transport or membrane proteins and deactivate them. 2. Reaction with Bacterial Cell Membranes: There is evidence that silver ions attach to membrane surface radicals of bacteria, impairing cell respiration and blocking its energy transfer system. One explanation is based on the nature of enzyme construction, which allows metals of higher valance to replace enzymes of lower valance in an enzyme complex. (This prevents the enzyme from functioning normally). Silver has a valance of 2, which allows it to replace many metals with a lower or equal valance. 3. Binding with DNA: This is based on studies dones by C.L. Fox and S.M. Modak with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a tenacious bacteria that is difficult to treat. They demonstrated that as much as 12% of silver is taken up by the organism's DNA. This in turn prevented the DNA from unwinding, which is an essential step for cellular replication to occur. So how safe is colloidal silver for humans (and ferrets)? The EPA's Poison Control Center lists no toxicity listing for colloidal silver. According to Robert Beck, M.D. (author of The Body Electric) colloidal silver has also not been linked to the argyria (discoloration of the skin) that has been caused in the past by silver compounds, such as silver nitrate, silver sulfate, and silver sulfadiazine, etc. The body has been found to eliminate excess silver via the metallothiones. These are ubiquitous proteins, first characterized in 1957, which have the property of binding with heavy metals, such as silver, into metal-thiolate-cluster structures which aid in transportation, storage, and elimination of nonessential trace metals which enter the body. I hope this helps to answer your questions. If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask .. I have lots more information on colloidal silver, but I'm trying to keep this short enough to fit in the FML! Thanks to Penny for an excellent question .... - Ela [Posted in FML issue 2560]