From:
Edward Lipinski
Date: 2001-03-05 23:24:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Boo Boo on Sid's Pee Pee and
Ellie's adrenal
To Megan and her boy Sid,
Would like to know what you found out at your vets about the "condition"
of Sid's (as you call it), his PeePee.
Have had shocking experience of male ferret having caught his PeePee (PP)
in a slight opening on the edge of a wire cage as he was descending down
from the top of the cage on the outside.
He got my attention by his frantic clawing trying to get back up on the
top of the cage going backwards.
He made no sound. Not a scream or a whimper. Just silent 'n very rapid
scrambling.
I was able to lift him and get his PP out from between the little space
between the roof and the sidewall of the cage with a screwdriver. I was
totally amazed that he seemed not the worse at all and suffered no ill
afteraffects that I could see.
Upon withdrawing the PP into its sheath I noticed that the tip seemed
downpointed rather than straight like a dog's PP would be. After a few
days I examined him thoroughly and could evert his PP. The tip was still
pointed downward. So before heading off to the vet, I checked one of my
other adult male stud ferrets and found that his organ was indeed similar
to the other guy who hung by his for a while. They both pointed downward
- on the tip that is.
By feeling the structure within the penis sheath the PP could be felt
quite easily as if it had a bone or a very hard structure of some kind
within it. I noticed too that the tip, not only that it was pointed
downward, but it could be sort of bent downward at almost a 90 degree
angle, as if it were jointed near the tip.
So my unscientific conclusion is this: 1.) the ferret's PP has a bone in
it. That's how he could hang from it and not show any apparent pain, but
did seem a bit "uncomfortable", just as if his PP was connected with
cartilidge and tendons to his pelvis. 2.) as to the reason why a
ferret's PP is bendable down on the end, well I'll just bet you this is a
coupling device that more or less locks into the mouth of the cervix
during copulation. I say this because I've noted that the mating
ferrets, when done mating, cannot separate easily, say as it is with a
human man and woman. The male ferret pulls pretty hard it seems and the
female pulls equally as hard in the opposite direction. When they do
finally separate it's like the pulling of a cork out of a bottle - POP!
The breakaway is not easy and certainly requires some heavy pulling. So
I can only conclude from the post coital behavior of ferrets that there
must be some sort of latching mechanism that prevents the male from
withdrawing until the penile tumescense lessens or some other feature
allows the two ferrets to "unlock", as the saying goes.
Please let me say to you who don't have unaltered ferrets (including
vasectomized males), having such ferrets to observe is an altogether
another world compared to viewing only the prepubescently altered pet
store ferrets. I've often wondered: is sex good for ferrets? If so,
then don't you pity the poor altered ones. Then too, I've wondered if
unaltered ferrets would be as sickly and cancer ridden as the altered
ones. Hmmmm.
So to Megan and Kelly, thanks for bringing up the subject of ferret Pee
Pees. The subject has stimulated my memory.
Edward Lipinski
F.E.R.R.E.R.S. NW Foundation, a nonprofit shelter and husbandry.
On Mon, 05 Mar 2001 08:12:04 -0500 "Megan Mohrbacher"
<Mmohrbacher@m...> writes:
> Kelly, I was going to post the same concern today. One of my boys
> has the same problem. His penis is really red and just looks a bit
> different than my other 2 boys. I just had them at the vet