From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2008-03-03 22:15:28 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: BE AWARE FUNGAL ORGANISMS LIVE IN THE SOIL WHERE THEY DIG..............
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
I have to agree with you both, though I do also admit that i understand the frustration
(and the wry humor about it) which was expressed.
It seems to me that some excellent personal approaches to health choices have been
expressed and explained.
Let me add that there simply is not such a thing as perfection. That is just the way of life;
perfection simply doesn't exist. You can find what is perfect for you or for your
individual ferret, but that doesn't mean that it is perfect for each ferret or each ferret
person.
That isn't just true for health issues. It's a basic aspect of life. My husband is perfect for
me and apparently I am for him, too (though I think I have the better taste in spouses)
and that has been for the 29 years we have been together. Does that mean that either of
us thinks the other is perfect, or even that either of us would be perfect for anyone we
currently know? Nope. Same with so many of life's choices: jobs, health, classes,
activities for kids (Ever sign your kid up for a lot of activities only to learn later that "free-
range" kids are thought to more often grow up to be creative?), which animals fit in one's
life, home design, vehicle choice (Get the size you need for when you transport the team
so it is handy, or rent a large one those times -- extra work -- and have a smaller and
far less polluting one for the vehicle you own?), etc. Nothing else in life is easy; why
would ferret care be?
Nothing is an exact fit so you find what fits best of the options FOR YOU and FOR YOUR
FERRET and know that life isn't easy. Also, don't let it be a popularity contest. Just
because something is right for someone else, or something is the current bandwagon
does not mean that it is automatically right for your ferret or for you, and sometimes that
option might not even be right for most individuals if people just looked more closely.
So, learn the upsides and the downsides; everything has them. Both of those help make
your choice, and then knowing the downsides later allows you to more easily spot and
identify problems when they happen so that you can jump on them in a timely way.
Downsides are really important to understand, not as attractive as upsides, but really,
really essential.
Are there places and people with conflicting statements? Yes. Consider the source, learn
from several places. Weigh the data rather than the popularity. Look at dates, too,
because sometimes older info is replaced when new research has been done.
Also, remember that skill sets and preferred tools are individual. I've known excellent
ferret vets who do their best adrenal surgeries with cryosurgery and others who do their
best adrenal surgeries with scalpels. Both have done marvelous surgeries, but different
things work better for different people. Instead of assuming that one approach must be
just better ask which works better for the vet you are seeing.
Remember that "research" in terms of health, although it can be applied as a fancy way to
say "looked it up", INSTEAD optimally refers to actual studies with actual controls by
actual experts in the field and with actual significant results. It is easy to look things up
and avoid what a person doesn't want to see, but having a compilation of some results or
of some hypotheses, while potentially useful, is far different from an expert doing a real
study which holds up to serious challenges by other real experts. Science isn't religion.
Religion says, "Believe me and then prove your faith by ignoring all challenges." Science
says, "Make me prove that this result is valid and then continue to hit me with every
challenge you've got so we can see if the result needs to be modified."
If something is a hypothesis you can still try it in case it might work, but do not confuse it
with something that has been through the above described trials. You know how it often
seems -- WHEN LISTENING TO THE NEWS -- that scientists are forever changing their
minds? Well, actually, what is all too often going on is that news reporters are acting as if
hypotheses were a lot more certain than hypotheses ever are. The scientists used
conditional words and the reports neglected them. OR sometimes the reporters also were
careful but the readers or listeners were not. That isn't scientists changing minds
(though that can happen with new data) but instead it is careless reporting, or careless
listening or reading. ALL of the same things happen in relation to ferret health data.
So, yes, it can be frustrating, and no, not all sources of data are equal, and yes, some
ferret health precautions often taken are only hypotheses, and...
Hey, it's worth it. The road to progress in optimal ferret care is rocky, but so are precious
gems and some ice creams... ;-)
Sukie (not a vet) (and yes, it is important to remember that I am not a vet because it is
essential to use a grain of salt always, and then increase it to a boulder of salt when
people speak outside their areas of expertise as so often happens, and that is true for
EVERYONE, so beware any worship or over-weaning belief placed in another human, and
beware a salt shortage... ;-) )
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
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