I may not be as ancient as "The Crandall", but I'm on my way. I've
owned ferrets off and on since I was around ten. Let's see, okay, so
I"m xx today, minus ten, and that leaves us ... okay let's round that
off to about thirty years of ferret ownership. Shh.

Sukie listed everything that I basically would have listed with just
few slight differences:

1) Food. Change isn't the word for it. Think Meow Mix. Think the worst
possible old adult cat food mix with like nil protein, etc, Think bread
and milk in some parts.
2 Fancy ferrets. I never saw a color other than sable and albino. In
the mid eightes I saw chocolate, chocolate points, sables, albinos,
butterscotch (think golden, truly golden ferrets), and true cinnimons
(like Sukie said ... true auburn/reds). I never saw a ferret with fancy
markings (blazes, pandas, mutts) until the nineties.
3) Early neuter. For me, this was a huge change. I didn't see it until
the mid eighties. Path Valley being the first to do it on my end of
town. I didn't see it on a massive scale until the late eighties
though. It was with the earlier neuter that came the younger ferrets.
Before better surgical techniques were devised, large farm ferrets came
in at about 8-10 weeks old. Over night we were seeing 6-8 week old
babies and still with surgical sites.
4). Vaccinations. What Sukie said. Lol. It was doggy style or no style.
6). Litters. "We do it on the paper!" LOL.  Like Sukie said, it was
basically kitty clay or newspaper. Also bedding was different. (people
used wood chips, straw, corn cob, newspapers, etc).

The "ancient ones" did loose our babies back then. To "sickeness" and 
"oldness". You know ...
"What happened to your ferret?"
"Oh he got sick and died".
 or
"He got old and died". Lol.

We don't know what they were leaving with most of the time. In
addition, I didn't have exposure to enough ferrets back then to say for
sure that most or all ferrets lived longer back then. I just know that
my own ferrets did live a lot longer than mine do today. I also know
that I never saw a case of adrenal disease within my own walls or any
others (private breeders included) until the late nineties. It was a
shock to see my first one. I did, however, see my first case of
insulinoma in the early nineties. I can't say if some cancers were more
or less because the average vet did not know much about ferrets much
less than necropsy one. I don't recall ever having any personal trouble
with anything GI in the past either. No bouts of diareah, ulcers, etc..

This subject absolutely fascinates me. It always has. And not just
about the differences in healthcare and husbandry, but the differences
in ferret ownership and ferrets in general. I love this topic! I can't
talk about it enough.

[Posted in FML 5704]