mongooses

Question
Mongooses are the love of mine.  I hope you can help me.  I need to know how similar the 2 animals are in order to know about vaccines, antiparasitical agents, illnesses and treatment, etc. I know the 2 are cousins, both feline relatives.  Do you know, or can you help me find out, answers to these questions?  I can only find a zoo vets but they will not answer anything over the phone. San Diego Zoo and the National Zoo in DC.  Also UC Davis Vet school, but its the same story with them.  The 2 I have now are Cusimanse.  The one I had previously was a small Indian Mongoose I saved when he was orphaned in Puerto Rico.  He was TRULY {and still is} the love of my life!  He died almost 4 years ago now, at at 8 1/4 years of age, apparently from kidney disease.  Is that common among ferrets, and what disease is it more precisely?  Thank you.  Karen  PS  I had a ferret as a companion animal to him, a female I also loved, and she died about a month after Rikki.  At first I thought it was a broken heart, but the autopsy showed several of her organs were black and withered.  Kidneys, liver I think.  Was that something that was the same as what took the mongoose, and is the autopsy findings enough to give you an idea of what it was?  Thanks a million!

Answer
I have never owned a mongoose, but have 20 ferrets.  Kidney failure is common in older ferrets so if mongoose's are like them I'm sure that would cause death.  Necropsy of dead animals do tell a lot.  Usually if an organ turns black there is internal bleeding.  Ulcers cause that as well as other diseases.  Stools of animals and humans as well turn black if there is blood in them.  I don't know if that's much help.

Mary