From:
lacykitten@gmail.com
Date: 2004-09-25 13:22:01 UTC
Subject: need input: "ferret toy" health risk?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <7408068.1096120864302.JavaMail.nobody@chromium.smartgroups.com>
Since we got my ferret Mischief three years ago, we have always given him these
tennis ball type balls that you can get at pet stores here. They're usually colors like
purple and neon green/yellow (typical tennis ball color) and are somewhat to quite a
bit smaller than normal tennis balls. I am not sure if they come more furry than
normal tennis balls or not but they end up that way.
Anyway, everyone we have seen around here seems to use these balls as ferret toys.
I know my Mischief loves these balls more than any other toy. He would sit and
gnaw on them, you could hear his teeth squeaking on the rubber. They ended up
with the fuzzy stuff all pulled up into weird shapes, but no holes or anything.
So Mischief was in at the vet's almost two weeks ago for an obstruction... he had to
have a giant hairball removed from his intestine, which was in a place that, had the
intestine died and been removed, they would not have been able to put it back
together. He came pretty close... the intestine was so irritated and hurting from this
huge hairball that it was actually bleeding.
Anyway, looking at the hairball, it looks as if a good portion of it is these pet tennis
balls that everyone seems to give their ferrets. To us, anyway.. it's not hair.. or not
all hair. We don't have any green pets!
I am not sure if most people get to look at hairballs if they get them removed or if
this has been a concern to anyone else. We could have very well lost Mischief -
$1500 later and very nearly missing part of his intestine - and I think this could be a
very real concern to their health, much like the rubber balls that they can chew and
get stuck in their intestines.
If anyone knows anything about these types of balls and whether they DO present
such dangers in more cases than mine, please write back. I would like to compile
some information and include it on a flyer I'm wanting to make up.
I know not everyone with pets can afford that much for a pet (especially if they are
having problems like us, when we spent over $600 the last couple weeks because
he's been sick with, apparently, IBD for a while and we were trying other things to
rule them out...) even if they want to... and it's hard to deal with even if you CAN...
and I know losing him would have killed me.. so if this is even a potential health risk
to ferrets I really want to have more than just my experiences to go on with this, to
convince people of how dangerous they are.
If you or anyone you know has had issue with these balls please let me know.. it
would really help what I'm trying to do. Or, if you thought they'd be a health risk
and never even offered them to your ferret, let me know that too and what made
you feel that way... anything I can get would be awesome.. And please give me
permission to use your story - I might make up a little website if I get enough
information from people to warrant it..
Thanks a lot.. this really means a lot to me. Hopefully there aren't many stories like
Mischief's though!
-Lacy
[Moderator's Note: if you look in the Archives of the FHL at
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
and the Archives of the FML at
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html
you will find incidents of "furballs" which were largely fake fur, fake fleece, or cloth.]