Interesting that this topic should come up, as I have been pondering it
for a while myself.  Over the years I have been owned by seven ferrets
total.  Three have come from pet stores (Marshall Farms kits), one came
from a private breeder and three have come from shelters.
 
Goose, my first, (female pet store baby) lived for eight years.  She had
insulinoma.  At the time my vet was not great and I was mostly ignorant,
so her health care in the last years was pretty much everything you
shouldn't do for an insulinomic.  The gist of her treatment was that I
would dose her up with Karo syrup and a heating pad everytime her blood
sugar bottomed out.  In spite of me, she lived with insulinoma for at
least two years.
 
Tas, (also a pet store female) was remarkably healthy until right at the
end.  She lived almost eight years as well.  I took her in to have a
blister/bump/growth taken off and she never would quit bleeding after
surgery.  Again, likely a combination of ignorant me and ignorant vet.
 
Miesa came from a breeder and was a late alter.  She is now eight years
old and has been completely healthy until just recently.  She has
glaucoma in both eyes and was diagnosed last week with lupus.  (Which by
the way, apparently ferrets can get autoimmune illnesses, it's just rare.
Dr Bruce Williams had some very interesting thing to say on the FHL about
it.  Miesa is taking steroids and has perked right on up.  She's doing
great and is rampaging around the house again.  The boys don't know what
to make of her!)
 
Joe is five years old and came from the pet store (Marshall Farms male).
He has been insulinomic for about a year now.  He is on steroids to
control it.  He has never had surgery.  He has always been a big fat boy
as well as something of a treat mooch.  As I have become more educated,
Joe's treat days have ended.  His treats now consists of duck soup licks
and the occasional chicken baby food lick.  Poor Joe is distraught that
his raisin supply has dried up, of course, but he's making do.  Joe just
went for his annual checkup.  The vet indicated that his spleen was huge.
He said either Joe was getting over a bug (entirely possible as I just
had the flu and his nose had been drippy) or that he was in end stages of
insulinoma.  It is of course my hope that Joe merely caught my bug.  He's
eating, drinking, sleeping and pooping normally.  He's also doing his
normal wanderings about the house.  Right now he seems fine.  We shall
see.
 
Bear came from the shelter and is believed to be about 5 years old
as well.  He's a nutcase and is totally healthy.  He's never had any
problems at all.  Other than being crazy and getting himself places that
he shouldn't be, he's great.  I do routinely tell him that he's a stress
carrier, as my heart has stopped more than once due to his shenanigans.
Bear has two tattoos in his ears.  I assume he came from one of the
farms and that he was an early alter.
 
Ringo came from the shelter.  I believe him to be six or seven years old.
He has had adrenal surgery once.  At the same time the vet discoverd
insulinoma tumors, which he took out as well.  Ringo is on twice daily
steroids and is doing well right now.  He crashed on me last summer and
we had a bit of a scary time trying to get him balanced out.  Thankfully
he is doing great right now, but he's very likely end stages as well.
 
Jeffry came from the shelter.  He died peacefully in his sleep back in
the fall.  I believed him to be somewhere in the 7-8 year old range as
well, but I'm not sure.  Jeffry had more health problems than the others.
His teeth were in horrible shape and only got worse.  At least two of
them were extracted along the way.  He had adrenal surgery twice and was
on twice daily steroids up to his death.  Even with the steroids he
bottomed out on me a couple of times.  His blood sugar would get out of
whack, so either it was a result of no adrenal glands or he was
insulinomic as well.
 
All of that to say, mine have been a mixed lot.  I don't know if it is
the shelter aspect or the pet store aspect.  I kind of think it's the
early alter thing, but I don't really know.  I have loved my shelter
kids.  They are all sweet, adorable and precious, but it breaks my heart
that I only get to love on them for such a short amount of time.  That,
of course, is mainly because they are older when I get them.  I don't
know what I'll do when the time comes to add to the family.  I have
seriously considered getting the next ones from a breeder so that I can
late alter.  I really, really believe that the practice of early altering
creates huge health issues.  But I'm also a total sucker and would be
hard-pressed to not adopt a shelter sweetie if the situation arose.  I
have no expert opinion.  'Tis merely how their little lives have played
ou in my world.  I am curious to see what the general consensus is.
 
Anne
(with Miesa and the boys)
[Posted in FML issue 4805]