Hi,
 
I have decided again to come out of lurking mode and bring up a couple of
things that people might want to discuss further.
 
First It's Dr. Cathy Johnson Delaney, DVM (Exotic Vet here in the Puget
Sound that is doing this Adrenal Study with the Washington Ferret Rescue
and Shelter.  I won't even try to go into all that she and the shelter
has accomplished in the past two years.  I am absolutely not qualified to
talk for her.  The only thing I will say is I have 11 ferrets here at my
house that are in the Adrenal Study.  She has brought out ferrets in
season with Lupron.  There is no doubt in my mind that Lupron will bring
back fur and shrink the vulva and prostate in MOST adrenal ferrets.
There are a few that it hasn't, and my mind wonders if these are the ones
that do have malignant adrenal tumors.  Of course, no ones going to know
unless these ferrets do have the adrenal surgery.  Also, I don't care
what anyone says and even before this study was done I do feel that
spaying and neutering ferrets at 3-5 weeks of age is causing a lot of the
health problems we are seeing in ferrets.  When the vet wanted to neuter
my cat at 6 weeks old.  I told her absolutely not!  No way would I do
this.  My feelings are you wouldn't spay or neuter a human at an early
age if ever, why would anyone do it do an animal..  I know because of all
the animals in the Cat and Dog shelters that are put to sleep everyday
because they don't get adopted.  Mark my word, someday this will be
happening to Ferrets if the ferret mills don't quit producing so many
ferrets and selling them to Petco and other Pet stores.  The Ferrets
shelters are not going to be able to continue taking in all the unwanted,
ill ferrets and trying to take care of them till they pass over to
Rainbow Bridge.
 
Today, I got a call from one of my ferret friends that had lost her job
and decided the best thing she could do was give all her ferrets back to
the shelter, well this person that felt sorry for her said she'd keep the
ferrets for a month till she was sure she really wanted to do this.  So
the ferrets ended up in this person's house.  She has been having second
thoughts about what she did to these ferrets that had a wonderful home
before she lost her job.  When she called back to get them she was
informed that one of them had passed over to Rainbow Bridge, of course
she now blames herself for it.  Sure this ferret may have still died
from insulinoma problems or symptoms that looked like it was insulinoma,
but at least she would have died in hands of someone she really knew
and loved her instead of a complete stranger.  It really upsets me when
people feel they can't take care of ferrets because they don't have the
money to get their ferrets surgery and then they end up taking them to
a shelter that also doesn't have the money to do the surgery for the
ferrets.  Then they end up passing over hopefully in a loving shelter
mom's arms, but with as many ferrets that are in the shelter they may end
up passing over in pain in a cage.  So when this friend called, I tried
to say the right things, but in my heart I also felt she did the wrong
thing, and she knows she did.  So now she will take her ferrets back and
will try to take care of them with whatever money she can come up with.
I told her she'd better keep them then no matter what, because once a
ferrets gets to be a certain age it is pretty darn hard for them to find
a new home.  If their lucky they might get to go to a foster home, who
ends up usually taking on all the expense of taking care of the ferrets.
But you know, those foster homes are also be coming off hard to find.
 
My saying is " You gotta take the good years with the bad years" and do
the best you can even if its a animal and not a human child, husand or
whatever is in your life that is causing you problems.  I guess this is
a lesson that we all need to think about including myself.  Life is a
growth experience and boy do some people including myself have done a
lot of growing over the years, but guess I got a lot more growing to do
before "GOD" calls me home.  My next change is coming very soon.  I have
to face my husband going back to the hospital to have back surgery again,
which probably will either kill him or put him in a wheel chair this
time.  Guess who gets to take care of him and no I won't put him in a
Nursing Home even if we had the money, because I have worked in one of
the best and have seen behind closed doors what happens there.  So when
my mother was dieing of Breast Cancer even thou my sisters and I had a
hard time we did not put my mom in a Nursing Home.  My sister in the end
set at her bedside and watched her die.  No, I couldn't go at the end to
help my sister because I put my ferrets first which I always do.  I
always put everyone before myself.  That's the caretaker way you know!
 
This past week I got a call one of my ferret friends wants me to babysit
her ferrets while she and her husband goes to California on their
vacation.  Well, I emailed her back and explained what my day as a
"FERRET CARETAKER" is like.  I said, call me if you see any time during
my day that I could take care of your ferrets, I sure couldn't find any
open time during my overly busy day.  Well, I got a call yesterday she
wants me to call her, she must have seen sometime In my busy schedule
day that I could get in my car and go to her house and take care of her
ferrets.  Or she's going to say I will bring them to your house.  Sure I
have another spare room I could put them in.  I can stay up and not go to
bed at night and make sure her ferrets get out for their free time out of
their cage, and if they were here that's exactly what I do.  Plus, I also
have sick ferrets that I have to take care of, I got think what diseases
these ferrets could bring into my house.  But you know what I am not sure
I am even going to call her back.  I hate saying no to people!  But I can
quarantee that when I need help does anyone come to my aid no way!
 
Just one more things I want to post, Hi Bob Church!  I finally took your
advise I gave my ferrets raw chicken bones during their play time, even
put them on a nice clean plate.  The ferrets were scared of them they
wouldn't even go close to them.  Sure they will eat your chicken gravy,
but forget the bones, the only way they will eat those bones is if they
are ground up!  So those bones at my house have to be ground up.  Their
teeth all need cleaning because they are getting older and no matter how
much CET tooth paste you use if you can get it into their mouth on the
brush doesn't really do that much good in my opinion.
 
Well, I hope I haven't said to much that will make people upset at what I
post, only telling what I see from my side of the world!  LOL
 
Charleen and the Wa. Tails
[Posted in FML issue 4203]