From:
"Kristy"
Date: 2008-12-29 20:22:47 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Are We Creating Super Bugs
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
*I apologize as I have just caught up on my holiday emails*
I read this and Barb's post and found myself nodding. While she may
have used the term Super Bug in a different context it is easy to
look beyond that can see her point. I know she was not advocating
filthy living conditions. She has a big part of the ferret
community for some time and should know what she is doing by now. I
also don't believe Barb was singling out ferret shelters either.
When I was in college many of my Human Development and Biology
classes pointed out that children who were raised (as in from the
beginning) in a "bubble" where their helicopter parents used lysol
and bleach to excess, protected them from eating new foods until
older and keeping them inside or out of the mud were more likely to
develop allergies, asthma, and autoimmune diseases. (Now
correlation does not always mean causation but it gives one pause).
We even learned how mild stress caused by novel situations kept the
immune system up and running and contributed to mental health as
well by teaching animals to think in broader terms and to be more
creative and flexible when encountering stress later in life. Many
of us practice this, it is called enrichment. It is a basis for
resiliancey. Enrichment is letting our little ones out of
the "bubble". Playing in dirt stimulates not only mind-but immune
system in bodies. Letting ferrets redecorate and change their
environment does the same.
Some focus so much on what can go wrong they yell "I won't risk my
(insert child or pet's name here)life and health" they deny them
the chance to encounter new things on a macro (digging)and micro
scale (Little repeated exposures to bacteria). Living Life is
risk. Ferrets enchant us because they like to flirt with risk.
Barb seems to be pointing out how overprotecting ferrets is also a
disservice to them, and letting them out of the "bubble" now and
then will keep them healthier in the long run.
I am happy to talk about this off the list-but wanted to put my two
cents in as to how this is a great point for discussion in regards
to ferrets health.
Kristy
Clyde, Garrison, & Arte
Missing Tweek
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