>This sounds like among Carla's crew, Lisa's crew, and our's EVERY ferret
>with Waardensburg markings who has passed away died young.  Our 'Chopper
>was the oldest here at 6 and a touch.  Usually, our ferrets are at least
>7, and typically in late 7 to early half of the 8th year here.
 
Sukie
 
Our typical age of losing ferrets is around late 7 to almost 9 -- the
oldest ones right now are Emily (9 in November) a sable MF female; Trella
(8) a sable MF female and Dijon (7) a light silver MF female.  Emily and
Trella have had surgery for adrenal gland disease but are otherwise
healthy.  Dijon has had no health problems to date, but she is having a BG
test on Monday.  The ferret that is astounding everyone is Garrett -- he is
a MF male, DEW, who turned 5 in January.  He was diagnosed with insulinoma
at 3 1/2(and had a partial pancreatotomy), adrenals at 4 and cardiomyopathy
at 4 1/2.  He has also shown signs of allergies/asthma and is known to be
allergic to isoflurane.  But Garrett keeps going and we attribute that more
to the fact that his conditions were caught early and that he tolerates his
medicines very well (prednisolone, proglycem, theophylline, enacard,
furosemide) than any special things we are doing for him.
 
Our other long term survivors are: Wolf -- 10 1/2, MF sable male(old age,
insulinoma); Jezebel -- 8 1/2, MF chocolate mitt female(insulinoma);
Rascal -- 8 1/2, MF silver mutt female(pyloric cancer); Sasha -- 7, MF
sable female(insulinoma).
 
Lisa Leidig, Head Ferret
The Ferret Haven "By-the-Sea"
http: www.ferrethaven.org
Want to help The Ferret Haven By-the-Sea? Register at iGive.com
by cutting and pasting this link:
http://www.iGive.com/html/ssi.cfm?CID=1236&MID=854
[Posted in FML issue 3123]