Pat:
 
Ah yes, you have touched on the one major negative to ferret medicine that
almost every ferret vet I know hates.  Every time Dr. Susan Brown gives a
lecture she talks about how tired she is of telling people their loved one
has cancer and there's only so much she can do.
 
There are some theories -- inbreeding caused by major breeders like Marshall
Farms, early spay/neuter, probably others not in my head at the moment.  But
no one knows for sure.  We do know Europe has far less of this problem.  One
vet I talked to suspects that keeping them outdoors (inside to play with
family of course) helps immensely -- she has a very small sample -- but she
says since she's started keeping hers outside she's had no cancer.  But we're
talking only a few ferrets here and it may be total coincidence.  The problem
with official research is money.  Dr. Williams I'm sure can speak to that far
more than I.  But research on ferrets for clinical medicine problems is tough
-- the money goes into dogs and cats because there are so many more of them.
The rabies study goes on I'm sure only because ferrets *are* climbing in
numbers and it's a public health issue.  Although many vets will be trying to
figure it out from the cases that come through their clinics, I've no idea
how long it will take via that method to figure out where this might all be
coming from, or even if we can figure it out without official research.
Anybody know any very old multi-millionaire ferret lovers?
 
Laura L'Heureux
[Posted in FML issue 1150]