Don't forget that many of the procedures and medications which make ferrets
live longer also do WONDERS for their quality of life!  Our guys have had
great luck after surgeries to typically get a LOT of time from them and the
time was without medical problems till they got something else usually; of
course, we were lucky enough to have the best ferret surgeon we've ever
encountered, but now he's recently moved away to be with his lady-love.
Ferrets also typically recover from surgery very well if the people just
put in the kind of care needed, and if there is the luck for the ferret to
not have one of the rare complications.  The cardiomyopathy meds our guys
had just plain turned their life-styles around, giving them not only longer
time but joy-filled time.  From what I have heard of Lupron it's quite a
quality of life drug and might help in longevity when surgery isn't an
option (since that's still better).  If you figure that it's fair to not
treat humans for medical problems, as I know some think, then your thoughts
are consistent if you also don't treat other species, but I think that the
many mentions of surgeries and treatments show that in very many cases the
advances in ferret veterinary approaches have been found to make a real
difference.
 
That said, yes, there certainly IS a time to give up.  The problem is that
it's IMPOSSIBLE usually to tell when that is unless you are right there and
you really know the individual ferret.  If you look back at the old posts
about Meltdown (for whom we received many letters saying that she should be
destroyed and would read them while she happily played or cuddled us) you
will notice that she had a rare complication to cardiomyopathy from the
start, and that there were multiple times (especially after she'd had it
for a year) when she got into real trouble but usually not for any period
longer than one day -- yet, each time she rallied and played yet again till
the very end.  At the end it was obvious and we helped her leave with a
mercy shot.  What was her projected lifespan at first before treatment
options were found?  She was expected to die any day and to probably not
make it a month, if memory serves.  Yet, she stayed the boss here for a
LONG while with help.  Oh, and 3 and 1/2 years before she finally died
she had a malignancy in an adrenal but for her the surgery was totally
curative, with no repetition.
 
There is a time to say good bye, and maybe at times folks just don't want
to see it, but there are also times to not give up.  NONE of us can know
when those are for anyone else's family members.
 
I think that the answer to your question boils down to this: sometimes it's
VERY hard to know when something will work and give a long and happy time
afterward, or when it won't work, so the individuals who best know the
individual animal (the animal's family and vets) have to decide whether to
try or give up.  In ***extreme*** cases I've been more the "give up" person
worrying about suffering and Steve has been more the "give another chance"
person for those extreme cases.  So far those situation have balanced
about 50-50 with the ferrets sometimes doing wonderfully afterward or us
sometimes having to say "Well, it was tried, but now it's time for a mercy
shot."  When it was time for the end we both just plain KNEW it.  Ferrets
reach a point where they give up and they communicate that very well.  It's
not possible to tell long-distance if another's ferret is without hope,
except in the absolutely most extreme situations and then the ferret is
about to die any hour, anyway.  Part of what you read is the author's pain
in such posts.
[Posted in FML issue 2972]