>As to ad lib diets leading to obesity, unfortunately April's observations
>are largely anecdotal, and suspect for a number of reasons...
 
Hi, Melissa.  While I agree that some of what you say above may be true,
what I mentioned about the animals we have seen in our hospital is not
just anecdotal-I am referring to the YEARS of _documentable_ experience
(hundreds of patient charts) the VETS I work for have in treating
ferrets, and not just at this particular clinic.  Also, quite a bit of
reading I have done has also indicated that obese ferrets are rather on
the rare side without other mitigating medical factors.  That's all.
 
I do agree that clients that come to us get more ferret education than
they would at a lot of other clinics because the doctors I work for have
gone out of their way to really learn about ferrets (most vet schools do
not teach much about ferrets, if at all, and in fact, Tufts, where my
docs went to school, even now only has a three hour seminar to cover
them-vets must learn about them elsewhere) and there are three ferret
owners working in the clinic as techs as well.  However, I have discussed
this with people who work at other clinics as well, and the concensus
there has been that obese ferrets are rarely seen, too.  Education is
a goal of our hospital for every type of animal we see, and people
certainly do seek us out for the reputation we have built seeing
"exotics" as well as felines.
 
However, a lot of our clients come to us because of location, etc, too,
(inner city Worcester, MA) and aren't necessarily any more likely to
properly house or exercise or feed their ferrets BEFORE they come to us
(we have quite a few very uneducated folks come in, and we end up
teaching them all about this).  Some people do bring their animals to the
vet without having been up on all the research or even basics about
ferret care.  Most of them do leave food out for them all day, though,
and even among this segment of our clientele, obesity has been a rarity.
 
Thanks!
 
-April
[Posted in FML issue 3945]