he has not touched his ferrets or handled them at all during the time his
dogs were bad, yet a week afterwards his ferrets caught the disease. He
tried all the remedies he knew of, but in 14 days 12 hitherto good,
strong, healthy ferrets died: all he had. This will show at once that
the disease is very contagious. The moment you see signs of distemper
coming on feed the ferret as little as possible. Give it as little to
eat as will just keep life in it, for in feeding the ferret you also feed
the disease. When you have kept the food from it is the time to start
curing if possible. Now, from experience the first thing I recommend is
to sweat the disease out of it, and I find the best way to do this is as
follows:--Get an old bucket with a few one-inch holes bored in the
bottom, and almost fill it with good new straw horse-droppings; put a
little hay on the top of the droppings, and then put the ferret on the
hay. Place or hang the bucket over a boiler or on the mantelpiece, and
let the kettle steam under the bucket, say for 30 minutes, and you will
find the steam and the ammonia from the droppings will together sweat the
disease out of the ferret; then you can start feeding it again. Feed it
with something substantial, such as the jelly from stewed cowheels; give
them the jelly only, not the meat; and you will have a good result. Also
give them a teaspoonful of cream. This is the one and only cure for
distemper.

Another disease in ferrets, especially young ones, is what I call "red
mange." This starts always under the belly, and you will find that the
skin becomes very red and speckled. This is easily remedied by the
simple process of washing in lukewarm water and rubbing with sweet oil
and black sulphur. The same mixture will answer for "foot rot" if rubbed
well into the paws. The general cause of this latter disease is neglect
of the ferrets and the hutches not being cleaned out regularly.