Sorry for the second post in one day, but that's what happens when I am
caught up on the FML for once....:)
 
The rescue I help with has taken in a couple of ferrets that are *horrible*
biters. While the female has gotten better about biting, the male continues
to be a vicious biter. (The first time I attempted to pick up this ferret,
he lunged for my hand. Didn't get me though..just bit the stuffed animal I
shoved in his face first! *hee hee*)
 
The ferret so far has bitten *through* someone's bottom lip, *through*
someone's finger, and has bitten another's cheek hard enough to leave a
welt/flap of skin that took *two weeks* to heal.  I have been asked by
members of the rescue about the use of a one time shot of depo provera to
cure his biting if the usual methods are unsuccessful.  I have also been
told that he is not a fear biter.
 
Has anyone used this with a biter and had good success? What possible side
effects are there?  (Please keep in mind that this is the same ferret that
just recently had an extreme, immediate reaction to his second (ever)
distemper shot.) Also what dosage should be used?
 
I appreciate all the advice you can give to the rescue.  Ferrets like this
can really deplete resources and they are also filled with ferrets,
adoptable and unadoptable.  It is uncanny how rescues all over the country
are feeling the pinch at this time too.
 
We just recently received the photos taken by the Humane Society when the
*Gainesville 13* were taken into custody.  The cages were stacked on top of
each other with wood set between them, no litter boxes so the feces and
urine soaked into the wood and allowed maggots to grow in the piles of
waste, algae growing in the water bowls, and no food.
 
Thank you again to Dr Kemmerer and Barbara Ludt for making that rescue
operation a success!
 
Happy ferreting!
 
Susie Sherman
[Posted in FML issue 1752]