I only give my ferrets a bath when they really start smelling like a bottle
musk oil.  Sometimes it's once a month other times it's once a week.
Depends on them.  I have a friend that gives baths three times a week to one
of their ferrets and once a week to the rest.  I don't think it has any
adverse side effects.  I use a hypo allergenic(sp) shampoo from my vet.  It
smells good and is good for them.  So she says.
 
Vaccines.  Rabies vaccine in my mind is more to protect my ferts from
becoming headless than contacting rabies.  Even when Florida was a kill and
test state it could help.  Not so much as far as the state goes but you may
convince the person bit not to report the bite.  Even when my first vet told
me it was a waist of money to vaccinate against rabies I still did.  I also
no longer go to that vet.
 
Canine distemper is fatal, it's air borne and you can pick it up on your
clothes and bring it home.  I don't care if you live in a town with no dogs
you should still vaccinate.  I feel that if you don't do any other
vaccinations please do this one.  Your stinkbutt's life deppends on this one.
 
Another medication that is very important is heart worm.  Even if your
ferret never goes outside you should take this precation.  Heart worm is
curable in ferrets but it is very hard on the ferret and your wallet.  Not
many doctors know how to cure heart worm in ferrets and often your ferret
will either die or just not be the same healthy ferret you thought you once
had.  Now if you live up north of course you don't need to medicate now but
we folks here in the south have to all year long.  I think one year of heart
worm med for two to three ferret was around 16 dollars.  That's less than a
dollar a month, to bad they can't stand the taste of it.
 
Hope you all have a good three day weekend for those of you who have monday
off.
 
 --------------------------------------
 Brad, Donna, Taz the spaz, and Marie.
 
 Have you ever danced with a ferret under the light of a full moon? I have.
 --------------------------------------
[Posted in FML issue 2189]