From:
Chris Lloyd
Date: 2001-04-02 15:13:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Re: RRC
From my experience in the UK I do not think there is much
difference between cancerous growths in US or UK ferrets,
there were a lot of cancerous ferrets in the 60s and 70s.
Then 20 years when I did not see many problems but in the 90s
reports of cancerous lumps and bumps started up again in
ferrets in the south of England. I believe Sheila Crompton
thinks ferrets in her area are also getting worse. There is a
big difference when it comes to insulinoma and adrenal
problems, insulinoma has to be diet related as carnivores are
not meant to eat sugar in any form. Adrenal disease is vertuly
unknown in the UK, in nearly 40 years of ferreting I have
never seen or met anyone who has had a ferret with the typical
symptoms. I believe this is the old problem we were warned
about when we started keeping ferrets. We were all told and
this was drummed into us that ferrets HAD to have a dark
lightproof box to sleep in. It was made quite plain that the
ferrets would not " do well " if you just had a run or cage
that did not a nest box or every night you had to cover the
cage with a tarp. It cannot just be cage stress or early
separation because that was the way 99% of ferrets were kept
30 years ago and probably still is for 80% of UK ferrets.
I read in an old book on poaching that between 1850 and
1860 that 30,000 ferrets were shipped from Liverpool to the
US, does this seem correct as its an awful lot of ferrets.
Chris
Chris Lloyd ICQ no. 44575318
Wessex Ferret Club Southampton. UK. www.wfc.cwc.net
The Pack www.btinternet.com/~chris.lloyd2/