What risks do pet ferrets face?  To answer that question, I did a search
of the FML archives, Agricola, Biological Abstracts, Medline, WorldCat,
Science Citation, the university vet literature, and my personal
ferret-related references that includes considerable gray literature and
unpublished medical reports donated by beloved vets.  To sweeten the
data, I threw in what I could document about my own ferrets.  I also
added every trustworthy instance reported to me.  Rather than worrying
about insignificant outliers, I subsumed all problems that only occurred
once within more generalized categories.  To make the list, the problem
had to be documented first hand (if accidentally caused), or by a
documented medical procedure (surgery, necropsy, etc.).  ALL instances
where the diagnosis was conjectural were eliminated.  For example, a
report that a ferret was stepped on, or killed by a dog, made the list,
but someone saying, "My vet thinks my ferret might have snacked on rat
poison", without supporting evidence such as a blood test or a chewed
package, did not.  Also, since this is a discussion of risk, not
mortality, I made no distinction between death and injury, or even the
degree of injury.  A report of an injury that was later reported as
resulting in death counted only once.  A single report of a ferret being
injured, or 50 reports discussing the same mishap, counted as a single
instance.  This was actually quite difficult to determine since details
tend to change as different people report the event (another problem of
anecdotal evidence), so some events may be slightly under- or over-
reported.  The most difficult decision was in how to count rare but
disastrous events that injure a large number of ferrets at a single time,
such as house fires, or auto accidents.  I elected to count each injury
or death separately, which tended to elevate their relative risk above
what might be expect for such rare occurrences.  Additionally, I
suspect some events are under-reported, making their exact position
controversial.  For example, I suspect "Human aggression" is extremely
under-reported simply because it is easy to explain away a kicking
trauma with the claim it was accidental.
 
I found the relative degree of risk of documented problems, injury or
death for pet ferrets being (highest risk at the top of list):
 
 1. Cage Accidents (toenail/bacula injury, broken teeth, falls)
 2. Human neglect (starvation, thirst, lack of care)
 3. Intestinal blockage (rubber, sponge, or vegetable)
 4. Stepping/kicking trauma
 5. Hyperthermia (over-heating)
 6. Falling (from high objects, off people, out windows)
 7. Door trauma (home, cage, car)
 8. Escapes from the home
 9. Dog attack
10. Choking on kibble
11. Poisoning (rat poison, plants, medications)
12. Accidental ensnaring (behind furniture, under objects)
13. Dish washers/clothes dryers/washing machines
14. Human aggression (assault)
15. Hit by car
16. Recliner or rocker trauma
17. House fires
18. Falling from moving cars
19. Attack by exotic pets (snakes, wolves, large cats)
20. Traffic accidents
21. Drowning (bathtubs, toilets, buckets)
22. Human children (accidental, non-assault)
23. Electrocution (chewing wires)
24. Lost in heating/air conditioning ducts
25. Strangulation (paper tubes, partially open drawers)
26. Mandated euthanasia (rabies testing)
 
As you can see, eating bone never made the list.  That is not to say it
was never mentioned; it was just that relational links between eating
bone and actual injury or death were never factually established; they
were always in the realm of unproven conjecture.  In science, all
PLAUSIBLE alternative explanations MUST be falsified before accepting
any one reason.  Few veterinarians are required to live up to this
evidentiary demand, but they should be aware that many ferret owners,
especially those grief-stricken ones grasping for any explanation for
their loss, often interpret the infamous 'well, maybe it was...' as
'it died from...', and report it as such.
 
People may object that this standard for proof of causal agent removes
many of the reports of ferrets being injured from eating bone (it did),
but the standard removed hundreds of reports of other types of injury as
well.  This type of screening process does cause an under-reporting of
very uncommon events, but if it had ANY impact on the reporting of the
relative risk of ferrets being injured by eating bone, it is because it
was a rare occurrence anyway.  In other words, standards for definitive
correlation of injury to cause may remove some rare events from
consideration, but if it does, then it only proves they were rare to
begin with.  Risk requires some degree of exposure, and some people may
object to the list because their ferrets are never exposed to some of the
risks.  For example, my ferrets are never exposed to dishwashers, rat
poisons, or dogs, so those risks would be non-existent.  The objection is
irrelevant.  We are not discussing individual ferrets--we are showing the
relative risk for various events within the ferret population AS A WHOLE,
as it is at this singular point in time.  Risk within a household will
always be different than risk to the population.
 
Still, there are two problems with real concern, even if they never made
the list.  Can bones cut or puncture a ferret's gastrointestinal tissues?
Can bones break a ferret's teeth?
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4156]