From:
nzweezul
Date: 2002-03-15 19:55:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Zevron on ferret longevity and disease
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., putorius@a... wrote:
> Having just put down our little female "Beeper" yesterday
morning...I felt
> compelled to answer your question. YES they do...and a lot more
than they
> should...certainly compared to populations in Europe.
I am from the UK, have lived in Scandanavia and Germany and am now in
Australia. I have only recently started "lurking" on this list and
have been totally appalled by the health problems you seem to accept
as 'the norm' in the States. I am sure that putorius is partly right
in his theory - as a similar example, the original hedgehogs
introduced into NZ from the UK in the 1800's were from a population
which had a distinctive though minor dental malformation, which is
now the norm in NZ hedgehogs, though rarely seen in the "parent"
population.
The problems you see with your ferrets do, of course, occur
elsewhere - but I would honestly say as the exception rather than as
the rule. It is certainly the norm to have ferrets which live 8 - 10
or more healthy active years, with little or no veterinary attention
other than vaccination and perhaps, in older age, dental problems. Of
course there is the infectious disease problem - not helped in Europe
by the crazy actions of fanatics releasing captive-bred mink into the
countryside - but we really don't expect to see all the problems
requiring surgical intervention you seem to get at horribly early
ages. Could part of it be - in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, at
least , the fact that rabies is not present and rabies vaccination
not generally permitted? And the fact that in Europe ferrets are more
likely to be 'outdoor' pets, thus not having unnatural light/dark and
seasonal cycles forced upon them? Certainly there is far less
surgical intervention at an early age in the UK, and Scandanavia,
where descenting is considered unethical and desexing is done in
adolescence/sexual maturity. I am aware that ferrets are good
candidates for anaesthesia, but surely guddling about in little baby
bodies only a few weeks old is bound to be far more invasive than the
easier cut and snip when a creature is physically larger and more
robust AND is sexually mature?
I have seen ads on the web for small breeders in the US who are
proud to proclain that their stock is Swedish, British or Australian.
They claim greater longevity and a relative freedom from adrenal
problems, insulinomas and other common North American problems. Is
this borne out by owners experience? If so, it would lend more weight
to putorius' theory of a limited gene pool contributing to the
problem.
I have three boys, seven, eight and nine years old. The eight year
old had three teeth extracted last year. The seven year old had an
emergency laparotomy three weeks ago for lumps of bright turquoise
sponge - all my fault. The nine year old was mistaken for a friends
three year old (his great grandson) by the vet.
There must surely be some sensible answer to the problem of so much
illness in so many relatively young ferrets. Even granted that a
ferrets lifespan is not as long as that of a cat or a dog (although
many of the giant breeds of dog are considered old at 8 or 9), for
what seems like a fairly large proportion of the pet ferret
population to spent 50% of their lifespan being medicated and
undergoing surgical intervention for endocrine disorders does not to
me denote a healthy population...
Have any comparative studies been done as to percentage occurrence of
specific diseases, international life-spans, etc etc? With an
interest in medical epidemiology, this aspect of veterinary
epidemiology is starting to take a hold of my mind ...