Greetings!  Thank you for the subscription.  Ferrets have become legal in
the state in the last 3 years.  The poultry industry finally gave up
their arguemen t that these pets would escape, become ferrel and destroy
the poultry industry.  Neutered animals don't require permits.  Intact
animals require a special permi t through the department of natural
resources.  One ferret fancier told me that it ran $250.00.
 
[I've left the preceding paragraph as it arrived here.  Notice the broken words
and fouled up spacing.  You probably have a newsreader that allows you to
type paragraphs with no line breaks, and somewhere along the way, something
chopped it at 80 columns.  Or you ran it through something that did.  Most of
us would greatly prefer that you insert line breaks yourself before the 80th
column.  I know I would, because I have to reformat them...  See below.
Which state are you referring to?  ED]
 
We see a few ferrets here at the vet school, in fact that is how I got
my first one...  6-8 years old, lymphosarcoma, renal dysfunction and
hypothyroid.  "Frank" was treated with vincristine and predinisone for 4
months for the lymphosarcoma and then it went into remission.  These
drugs are well tolerated in both peopel and most species of animals.
 
The general anesthetic of choice is ISOFLURANE.  It is shorter acting
than halothane and has less depression on cardiac and respiratory
drives.  Animals wake up almost as soon as it is turned off!  We
wouldn't use anything else.
 
NancY: We suspected Frank was hypothyroid because he had hair loss, (no
external parasites or allergies) and was very lethargic.  We performed a
thyroid function test on him (T4), that came back low.  Since he was my
ferret, and I am the pharmacist, the vet gave me a verbal prescription
for thyroid supplimentation.  I dosed him like I would a dog or cat:
(levothyroxine 0.01/mg/pound/day - maintance).  He did fine for another
year until renal function became almost non-existant, liver dysfunction
was severe and the prostate enlarged (possible CA) requiring
catheterization several times a day for urination.
 
Now I have a client animal less than a year old that also stems out as
hypothyroid.  I was going to suggest the same dose I used on Frank(as he
had hair regrowth and increased energy within 30-60 days)but I picked up
an exotics formulary from the University of Calf @ Davis and their dose
is 10x more.  I think it is a typo and I have a call in to check on it
but while I wait I thought that I would ask you folks.  Thank you for
the information.
                                                   Vicki
 
[Posted in FML issue 0494]