The discussion on descenting has brought to mind when my Miesa was young.
She is the only ferret I've had that came from a breeder.  When she
reached the appropriate age I had her fixed.  On the vet's advice, I
didn't have her descented.  As she got older, she would poof when she
scared herself.  The smell was terrible, but as pointed out, it
dissipated quickly.  For some reason though, the smell kept getting
worse and worse.  I finally took her back to the vet and explained that
I thought something might be wrong.  The vet foolishly expressed her
anal gland area and held it up to his nose.  Really, really bad idea.  I
thought he was going to pass out!  Tears, coughing, gagging- the works!
Tee hee.  It was all I could do to not say "I told you so".  The short
version of the story is that we had to go through another surgery to have
her descented to get rid of the growing infection.  In hindsite, I wish
we had just gone ahead and done it the first time.  It was terrible
making her go through surgery twice.  I realize that common wisom now
says that it is mutilation to have them decented, but I must say that I
would have to think really hard if I were in that position again.  It
would have been a no brainer part of the spaying surgery, but became a
huge risk to do it later.  Plus I'm a nutcase anytime one of them has
surgery.  It just breaks my heart to see them hurting.  If I could avoid
even the potential of that, I would certainly try to do so.  Dunno.  The
vet and I would have many long conversations.
 
I have a new puppy myself (well... she's about 6 months old now and
I've had her since she was six weeks old).  She LOVES weasel litterbox
crunchies.  It is completely disgusting.  That is one of our ongoing
battles.  She's gotten really sneaky about pilfering them.  On the plus
side, she's a great little organic vacuum to clean up corner accidents!
Blech!!!!!  There is apparently no cure for this disturbing little bit of
dogdom.  The vet just laughs and says they won't hurt her.  The best I've
come up with is to ban her from the weasel room (which she is for many,
many reasons) and try to stay really vigilant about checking corners.
But, she still manages to crunch the random poopie.  Again, BLECH!!!
(Everybody has asked if the dog is easier than the weasels and I answer
with a resounding NO!  The puppy is a royal pain in the tookus sometimes.
Of course, it has been a while since I've had a baby weasel... I do
vaguly recall wanting to throttle the baby maniac Miesa... good thing
they are all so darn cute!)
 
Anne
(with Miesa and the boys)
[Posted in FML issue 4671]