From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-08-25 16:08:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Amputation: at hock or stifle?
> A) Ferrets *do* use the longer stump if it is present.
> B) The ferrets with these longer stumps lost the foot in kit-hood, either
> born without it or lost it to an over-zealous mother. There is one that
> I'm not sure of that I'm waiting to hear back about. There are no
> reported problems with irritation at the stump in these ferrets. I
> haven't heard from anyone yet with an adult ferret who underwent a foot
> amputation.
We have not had any who lost an entire foot, but Scooter was missing
part of a hand when we brought him home. At first it was thought
that his mom ate part of it, but what was found in his second surgery
led the vets to think that a deformity was more likely. His
surgeries were at something between one and two years of age, we
think (if memories serve), and he doesn't mind the hand at all. Does
everything anyone with a full hand does. He did not ulcerate, but he
did have later tissue retraction problems after the first surgery but
not after the second. Those may have been in part due to infection
and further problems from a further deformity that was more proximal
than what was at first removed. The reason for the amputation can
affect how much comes off. Scooter showed that there can be
surprises that aren't seen at first. He not only had digits next to
each other in the same skin sock, but he had a phalanx that should
have been distal to another instead abutting it, side by side, in
that skin sock and facing upside down back toward the trunk, with
what remnants there were of a "claw" bursting through his skin. (The
claw was more like dried and twisted gristle.) It's hard to explain.