From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2008-06-29 16:51:49 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Brain Tumors In Ferrets
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
Have a few minutes between things just now so a quick voyage to
http://ferrethealth.org/archive
(HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for any health problems!)
can help all.
Why NOT stroke (though thromboses -- thrown blood clots for which the
root cause needs to be found and treated do happen on a *rare* basis
and Steve and I have had two ferrets with them in our decades with
ferrets in the family, one with cardiomyopathy w ventricular bigemini,
and one w advanced kidney disease):
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG11338
by Dr. Bruce Williams includes
QUOTE
Regarding the theory of stroke - this is really not a problem in
ferrets - stroke is most often seen in species with chronic
cardiovascular disease such as atherosclerosis, such as humans and
certain inbred species of animals, but not ferrets.
END QUOTE
There are others in the archives explaining why not stroke...
Now, if this ferret was not from one of the large and more careful
farms (which breed by "barn" so that in the careful farms one year
Barn A will breed with Barn B making offspring 1
Barn C will breed with Barn D making offspring 2
Barn E will breed with Barn F making offspring 3
Barn G will breed with Barn H making offspring 4
1 is allowed to be bred with ONE choice of 2, 3, or 4, or with C-H
depending on the farm, and so on, working it so that there are at
least 3 generations before the ferrets are bred with known relatives
BUT the farms have the same problem that so many others have and those
are
1. They also bred for too many fancies before taking health results
into account and that narrowed the genetic pool by giving multiple
copies of the deleterious genes (bad in terms of health and longevity)
which led to certain appearances which were bred for.
and
2. The original ferrets which led to the rest were pretty closely
related since not many came to the Americas and not many lines were
kept.
3. Of the lines that were kept in the centuries here before the farms
began for the pet industry and research in the U.S. a number were kept
by the fur industry which did not breed for health or longevity. They
wanted them to live just long enough to breed but to look pretty, have
good coats when young, and be useful sizes. So it is possible (and in
one case with a mid-sized farm I know it is so) that the background of
a number of pet ferrets started by the farms and some early private
breeders or backyard breeders having no real choice but to include
some ferrets who were from fur lines among their original breeding
stock. I recall one very casual and horrid "backyard breeder" (a term
used in the ferret community to designate someone who is the worst of
the private breeders) here in NJ about a quarter of a century ago
whose ferrets were allowed to breed willy-nilly and who thought that
it was normal that her ferrets typically lived only 2 years.
Many others besides farms actually unknowingly use some of the same
stock because Wendy Winstead, who popularized ferrets as pets in the
U.S. and helped other early breeders get started, originally began
with at least a good chunk of her breeding stock coming from Marshall
Farms. (Amazing person: a mom, a physician, and a successful folk
song writer as well as author and ferret breeder... Our Fritter was
one of hers.)
While the genetic lines here in the U.S. are very possibly more narrow
than in some other locations ( a problem some breeders and farms have
been tackling with imports) they should not be narrow enough to
encourage genetic propensities toward the kind of problems that cause
stokes. Still, as Dr. Williams points out even though true strokes
(rather than other things called "stoke" because of similar symptoms)
haven't been seen by those who looked carefully enough such as the
ferret veterinary pathologists like Dr. Bruce Williams who are the
ones who best know what ferrets do and don't present with, there is
always the possibility of someone who is less careful breeding close
relatives and winding up with an individual who has genetic problems
(esp. if problems show up young) so it is impossible to say "never",
though "never seen" (i.e. "so far") sure appears to apply for strokes
in ferrets.
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
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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