From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2007-07-05 15:46:01 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Problems with the kits
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
I am trying to spend more time with the new Lewington vet text. (My
time has been largely taken up this year by the special needs of my
93 year old father, with any spare of course spent with husband,
Steve, and the ferrets, so I have not been able to be as thorough as
I had been in the past looking things up for ferrets.)
Some things I missed when skimming through the swimmer section in the
Genetics Chapter too rapidly yesterday.
He says the condition has been described on and off in Australian
ferrets, and that the greatest danger has been anoxia within 8 weeks
from the ribs being so weak that they were unable to provide the
needed thoracic cavity.
Another cause of weak legs which he mentions can be overfeeding of
the jill who then overfeeds the kits. If they grow too rapidly for
their bones the bones will not be able to support their weight and
will bend and break.
Of course, there can be rickets or nutritional hyperparathyroid
syndrome when the kits have unbalanced nutrition. I spoke of that in
another post in this discussion. Over time, I have been informed
privately by breeders of some cases of this (and of malnutrition in
other forms) past and present when kits were switched too quickly to
too much meat in the diet and too little milk, or were weaned too
early. PLEASE, if such breeders would post of their experiences
publicly in preventing recurrences and helping the kits with problems
it would help others.
There does, however, appear to be a possible genetic condition in
which the bone matrix is poorly formed, and that is the "swimmer"
syndrome JL discusses in his text. There is brief mention that
Osteogenesis Imperfecta can occur in humans illustrating that genetic
conditions which can prevent bone from being laid down properly do
exist. In one litter it was noticed that all of the affected kits
were dark sable. I do not know if that was the case with other
affected litters.
In addition to the supplementation given (noted in previous post),
especially of calcium, it sounds like the kits needed to be kept from
having excess body weight to reduce strain on the bones.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
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