Okay, the basics of knowing how to cool ferrets include:
1. Knowing how ferrets differ from humans.
2. Knowing what is risky for ferrets.
3. Understanding what heat is and how to utilize that knowledge.
for these:
1. Ferrets do not present with a good amount of sweat on bare skin so
using a fan on them is not going to work like it does for us humans.
2. Usually for cooling overheated ferrets wetting their paws is advised
because too rapid a heat loss can itself be risky. Sometimes taking
risks is needed because other existing risks are so high, and a
treating vet will be able to determine when that is the case.
3. Okay, heat is energy. Coolness is reduction of heat;
coolness/coldness is not something in and off itself but just a
reduction of something (heat). Sorry, Kookie and Fonzi. (Those who
do not know the first reference can look up "77 Sunset Strip" and
also the song, "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb".)
Some of you may already recall that from junior high, from middle
school, or from explanations of how global warming (which literally
means that the planet itself winds up warmer on average in surface
water and surface air, not that each spot has to be warmer) has the
effect of worsening storms and their frequencies (because it takes a
huge amount of energy to raise the heat in something as large as a
big mass of air and water even just one degree and that energy fuels
storms). Okay, so now you have just been reminded while others have
learned a basic.
Light is also a form of energy.
How does that information help you keep your ferret cool? Here is how:
A. You can think of what uses heat and therefore reduces its presence.
Evaporative cooling is a fine example. In fact, this is where you CAN
use a fan. Usually for ferrets all that a fan is going to do will be to
increase the ambient heat from the heat the motor creates, BUT you can
surround a cage with dampened sheets and blow a fan on them to speed up
the evaporative cooling. Just remember to keep wetting down the sheets
and the result will be that the cage will locally become cooler. You
don't have to use the fan, of course. The evaporative cooling will
still cool the cage, just not as fast, and using enough evaporative
cooling when your a/c goes out will markedly decrease the rate at which
your home warms. Sadly, if it is too humid you can not use that trick
because the high humidity will reduce the rate of evaporation too much.
Melting also uses heat. Melt an ice cube in your hand to verify that.
Guess why your hand feels cooler. :-)
Some materials insulate well and others conduct heat well. Those which
conduct heat well can help draw heat from a body. That is why metals
and some types of stone and tile feel cooler than other things. Yes,
you can let a ferret rest on a conductive material to help draw away
heat. We used to keep a marble slab for that reason, which is not the
most effective option but it can be put in the fridge and then it
also will draw even more heat when equalizing with the surrounding
temperatures later. Actually, I should try to remember where we put
that. This is why a hot animal might prefer to lay on bathroom tile or
other such materials. They help wick away heat which is why they feel
cool to the touch.
Now, staying cool means balancing the equation on both sides. Think of
it like balancing your budget. When you balance your economic budget
you have to think BOTH of how much you are spending (outgo) and how
much you are earning from income, dividends, and interest (income).
With heat management you have to take into account not only what can
cool (use up heat) but also what is adding heat to the home.
Appliances, lights, solar gain, and living warm bodies animals all
add heat to a home.
The more efficient the appliances are, the less energy they waste.
Wasted energy is often present as heat. Inefficient appliances and
inefficient light bulbs add a decent amount of heat; they just do so
more expensively than actually heating a cold home with a furnace. BTW,
cooling a home by typical a/c uses more energy than heating it with a
typical furnace (and a body cooling itself also uses more energy than
it does to heat itself for each degree) so when you use inefficient
appliances and incandescent bulbs you not only are wasting energy and
the money to buy that energy but then waste even more on having to
use your a/c even more. Nor do they usually save you money on heating
in the winter because their costs for each degree of waste heat are
higher than typical furnace costs for desired heat. (There are some
counterexamples but they are in the minority.)
When you need to cool a home turn off any appliances that are not
needed.
The type of light bulb matters. Compact fluorescents turn out a lot
more light and a lot less heat for the energy used. They are about 3
or 4 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. Incandescent bulbs
put out about 97 to 98 percent of the energy you put into them as heat
rather than as light (and fire is even worse that way). You can see why
incandescent bulbs heat a room more than compact fluorescent lights,
making them a very poor choice when anyone needs to keep cool.
When you need to keep a home cooler use lighting sparingly and try to
preferentially use compact fluorescent bulbs if you must use lights.
See the later section on curtains, too.
If the night is cool enough you can use open windows in the night to
cool your home and then close up windows tightly in the day.
Most people will have already figured this out, but don't have a window
open when you are trying to heat a home or trying to cool a home (and
cooling typically uses more energy than heating and is harder to do).
You can't really heat or cool the great outdoors, but if you have that
window open you will trying to do just that. It literally amounts to
money thrown out the window. Close the window when using the a/c, save
that money and put it aside for ferret veterinary needs.
Bodies also create a lot of heat. A human is like a 100 watt light bulb
for energy used and as homeotherms (warm bodied animals) we put a lot
of energy into heat management (with about 20% maximum of the energy we
use going into other functions). Ferrets are smaller than us and warmer
than we are. They typically run about 101 to 102 degrees Fahrenheit
while the human typical temp is 98.6'F and 95% of people usually run
between 97.8'F to 100'F. You can't really change that, but you can
reduce activity when it is too hot and that will help reduce risk and
heat output. (Exercise burns more Calories and burning Calories creates
more heat, so exercise is great for weight loss but not great and even
dangerous if places are already too hot.)
Solar gain adds heat. You can reduce heat by cutting the amount of
solar gain with curtains, shades, etc. If you want to reduce heat gain
while still getting enough light to see in a room that would otherwise
be bright then you can have windows with films, or you can use the
Victorian trick of using lace curtains which is not as good as some
other things but it sure can help quite a bit and do so easily and
cheaply. (Yes, many things retained as non-fuctional decorations once
served real functions: filigree overhangs on porches to give enough
light but also shade, heavy curtains and tapestries as insulation, lace
curtains to allow in just enough light but keep a room cooler, high
ceilings to keep rooms cooler, working vent windows over bathroom doors
to keep bathrooms cooler in summer, working outdoor wooden window
shutters that can be drawn closed and latched from the inside to
protect windows from storm damage, lines of deciduous trees and tall
bushes on the south side of homes to shade in summer but let solar
gain happen in winter, storm breaks, etc.)
Of course, some homes are better than others for heat control.
Basements have the soil around them working to help keep them cool.
Adobe is a brilliant insulator. Middle Eastern homes use tricks like
shade utilization and sometimes having part of the roof and windows
higher than the rest to promote air circulation. In some places heat
exchangers can be used and those help with little energy input. Even
roof color can matter; a dark roof heats a building more while a more
reflective/lighter one keeps a building cooler.
Beyond the sorts of things that have been discussed and which you can
use to figure out ways to wick away heat, are things that require
energy input, like creating ice, or using a generator. (BTW, if you
keep bottles of ice or cold packs in your freezer they will help it
work more efficiently when it is not very full and can be used to help
with cooling when an outage happens, but open your fridge and freezer
as little as possible during an outage and if an outage will be long
you can even put a quilt/blanket over the doors (but NOT over any motor
areas and the like) for added insulation.)
Now, you know a bit about heat. Hopefully, it will help.
[Posted in FML 7126]
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