Gordon, fur loss is hormonal usually whereas that is not an effect
chocolate's ingredients might have as far as I know unless you'd stuck
some birth control pills, HRT for either gender, or certain steroids in
there (LOL!).  I guess a person could also imagine a mechanical fur loss
like if they rolled in something in that garbage which dried particularly
stiff and then hit or rubbed the fur against things -- as has sometimes
happened to models using the hair product "stiff stuff" which simulates
hair blown in wind.  Come to think of it, might something hormonal in
trace levels have been in the trash they got into?  I've never heard of a
healthy ferret having a problem with chocolate BUT there always are some
ferrets who already have heart conditions but the heart conditions are
hidden.  If ferrets have a lesser response then it is possible that ones
with heart problems may wind up in real trouble as a result of the
combination.
 
Gordon, were they checked for adrenal growths?
 
Since my posts recently often read like I have been dictating them to
ferrets who can't spell or leave out words, I think I have to explain
that many things in life are taking longer now since I am learning new
ways to do so many things.  The upshot is that I simply don't have a
lot of time.  The result is that there simply are more typos...
 
>my vet charges $350.00 i have had 1 ferret that has had adrenal surgery
 
Well, we've had costs vary for a range of reasons:
 
* Years (Ferrets have been in our family for over 2 decades and not
  only has money changed in value during that time but the approaches
  used have changed: some decreasing costs and some increasing them.
 
* New procedures (Some of these increase costs but decrease life lost,
  some decrease cost)
 
* Pre-op testing  (A CBC with Chemistry Panel is always a good idea,
  and if the ferret is older or had signs of possible heart problems
  it also makes sense to image for possible heart disease beforehand.
  Otherwise, there is pre-op testing done by some few vets which isn't
  necessary except under special circumstances with adrenal growths.
  The important pre-op testing can save lives.)
 
* Location of the growth(s):  A right is virtually always harder than
  a left, especially if it has adhered to or invaded the Vena Cava or
  liver.  Bilateral surgery with both coming out cleanly or signs of an
  atrophied remaining adrenal mean hormonal management to avoid a fatal
  Addisonion state.
 
* Complications: A few are mentioned above, but there can be weird
  surprises.  Twice we've had ones with very strange vascularization
  on the left.  For one it almost blew out.
 
* Hospital: there are differences among practices
 
* Location of hospital: ones in primo communities tend to have much
  higher land costs and tax costs, and supplies bought locally can
  also be more expensive
 
* Others:  (I KNOW folks here can add more.)
 
As a result the costs we have encountered for adrenal surgeries have
varied with us paying anywhere (in whatever year's dollars since these
amounts have NOT been normalized) about $200 to about $1,000.  (BTW,
$200 20 years ago would be about $600 now.)
 
Finally:  most vets do NOT have a lot of money to spare.  It is typical
for them to have huge debts from schooling AND to have to maintain a
full hospital.  Some with extra money of their own might do free or
almost free work when ther is need just like some rare free personally
wealthy physicians, accountants, or lawyers.  Others might collect for
such situations (something a past hospital here used to do, so the rest
of us who voluntarily gave to that fund would pay).  Usually, though,
vets are in the same financial position as any of the rest of us:  they
also have to keep a roof over their heads and food on table while they
save toward their kids' college education.  I don't know why but some
folks assume that vets have a lot of money to burn.  That wasn't true
with most of the ones I knew when I was growing up and it's not true
with most of the ones I know now.
 
As you can guess with something like 22 years with ferrets we've
had ferrets from a range of sources.  We have NOT found that the
ones we've had have differed in health based upon source with these
repeatable exceptions: the ones who we take in who have been through
really major medical problems (life threatening illness, life
threatening starvation, etc.) as kits have tended to be more likely to
be sickly, and we have found that the ones we have taken in with major
deformities/malformations/handicaps as kits have usually had shorter
lives and required a great deal more medical care by a very wide margin
(One needed 6 ops in his 6 years of life and a lot of testing done
regularly and ran $11,500 -- being worth every dime of it.).  There are
some other suggestive things we've run into but they haven't been
repeated so I'm not mentioning them.
 
BTW, if you read past FMLs you will notice that there are backyard
breeders (as opposed to private breeders) or careless breeders who place
appearance before health whose ferrets have shorter life spans than the
typical private breeder or farm ferrets.
 
Even with our early neuters (all but one of our ferrets) we have had
exactly two who have had adrenal growths below the age of 5 years (with
the second one now, the same male who had one out due to vascular
abnormalities) so maybe our care to provide a lot of complete darkness
helps them, maybe the large amount of exercise they get does, maybe
out avoiding obesity when possible for them helps them, maybe it is
coincidence.  Who knows?  Most of our's do NOT get adrenal growths (with
those who do not usually getting a second one) and most here do not get
insulinoma no matter what their origin is.  Twice in the two decades +
we have had lymphoma clumps.  Once we have had one with carcinoma who
died before her 7th birthday.  The early deaths (younger than late in the
6th year) we have had have typically been: JL (1), the current mystery
disease (1), and lymphoma clumps (too many).  Most of our's die when they
are late in the 7th year to middle 8th year, some older.  I HAVE heard of
some breeders who say that they have longer lived strains and it is worth
following up on that and getting their health and longevity records for
your examination.
[Posted in FML issue 4452]