From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2002-04-24 13:35:00 UTC
Subject: Noticed that the age mode at death has increased here over
time
Steve and I have had ferrets for two decades in early June, and here
is an observation. Over those 20 years veterinary medicine for
ferrets has improved vastly. The result is that the TYPICAL age at
death in our ferret family has bumped up markedly during that time.
Most of our's here now die during the later part of their 7th year
into the middle of their 8th year (some older and some younger) --
and remember that most of our's are ones we take in due to medical
problems, abuse, or deformities (the last being the hardest group to
care for usually) -- and often a combination -- so we are NOT
talking about ones who started out with advantages. We used to see
late in the 6th year to early in the eighth year as the usual clump,
with some older and some younger. Since the younger part of the
range is bumped up a full year that is like giving a human ten more
years of quality time. This pattern is also seen with humans who
have also had the typical age range of death bumped up over the last
few generations due to improvements in medical care. So those who
use and provide medical care can pat themselves on the back if this
is holds across the board. Has anyone run the numbers and compared
over the years? Mode is the *most common* age or age range, as
opposed to mean which is the average, or median which is the halfway
point. Has anyone worked their modes for different decades, or want
to look at their records and find them?