Upon finishing the very last of the FML tonight, I came upon the response
to Jennifer Ellis from Caitlyn Martin.  Now if you all remember, back in
early May, I had a heart attack while friving a car, blacked out, t-boned a
taxi-cab, was put on life support, and a week later, had a quadruple
bypass.  I was in the Hospital almost 4 weeks and a week after getting out,
was back in because according to my Dr., I caught staff infection in my leg
at the hospital.  The infection almost cost me my leg and possibly my life,
yet they sent me to a nursing home, where I was almost killed from neglect
my first night there.  Gloria, my partner for life, best friend, and
President of Especially Ferrets Inc., had the Insurance co.  bail me out
of there and back at home now, with a nurse coming to administer my I.V.
Stuff twice a day.  My point is....I've missed my daily reading of the
FML.  I have rec'd so many well wishes from all around the world and would
sincerely from the top of my heart ( the bottom third of my heart was
killed by the heart attack I had last October) like to thank all of those
who sent me cards and e-mails.
 
Now back to why I'm really here tonight.  Jennifer made the statement that
they have yet to have a case of early age adrenal problems and that most of
the adrenal cases she has seen came from bad homes.  I may have missed
something these past few weeks about Jennifers experience with ferrets and
for that, I'm sorry.  Jennifer, please don't take this hard, but you need
to see more ferrets.  I saw almost 2,000 ferrets last year.  Especially
Ferrets Inc., the shelter that I founded six years ago, paid for 238
adrenal surgeries last year.  My vets, conducted another 800 to 1000
Endocrine related surgeries that we referred to them from folks who called
us asking for advice from several states surrounding Colorado.  People
bring there ferrets here from out of state becuase of our reputation of
providing a very high level of care for the kiddos that come to us.  They
surrender them to us or just travel the distance because they have heard
of the experience my vets have and want the best for their ferrets.
 
About 95% of the ferrets we have to to the knife are early aged ferrets.
My very first ferret, Hilarious Harvey Horton, had his first adreal surgery
at the age of 3.  He died at the age of 6 yrs due to inoperable cancer of
the Endocrine system.  He rec'd regular checkups , was always current with
his distemper vaccinations, and only ate the best on the market, Totally
Ferret..  He was never caged except for transport to and from, and always
got plenty of excercise.
 
Harvey had lots of friends, both ferrets and Hoomans, I would guess maybe
thousands of each and he never wanted for anything.
 
Harvey was also a Marshall ferret.  Of the 95% of ferrets we see that
have problems with the endocrine system at an early age, they are marked
ferrets(tatooed) that have been altered at an early age.  Less than ten
weeks.  The other 5% of ferrets fall into the category of ferrets that have
been altered later in life, such as breeders, research ferrets and such.
They may have problems with their endocrine system, but they are much older
at disease time than their early altered counterparts.  We currently have
at the shelter right now, a ten yr old and two twelve yr olds.  the ten
year old male is huge, and just recently started to show signs of adrenal
cancer onset.  I have persoally seen a 14 yr old and an 18 yr old, although
the 18 yr old was blind and bald, he still enjoyed a quality of life in
the house where he spent his life.  He died recently of heart failure.  ALL
of the ferrets were altered later in in life.  Our 12 yr olds had adrenal
surgery at the ages of 8 and 9 and at the ripe old age of 12 lok and romp
around the shelter like 2 and 3 yr olds most days.  We reccomend altering
of females at the first onset of their 1st mentrual cycle and for males,
between 4-6 mos of age.  Good food, lots of exercise, and love will help
your fuzzy to live a long and happy life.
 
I have several people on a waiting list that want intact ferrets to be
altered later in life.  We don't provide intact ferret to anyone, but every
once in a while we will get them in the shelter , have them altered, and
then adopt them out.  Those ferrets fall into our Longevity reserch project
that we have been conductin for three years now.
 
By the way Jennifer, I have seen many ferrets with endocrine related
cancers that needed surgery at the age of 1 yr.  old.  All of them were
Marshall ferrets.  Currently, Especially Ferrets Inc.  is putting together
a grant application to the federal gov't that will institute research into
early age altering, insulinoma, and lymphoma, with the cooperation of six
of the finest ferret vets we know conduction the medical research on our
behalf.  If anyone has more questions or would like to put in their 2
cents( no flames please)  Please contact us at our website,
www.especiallyferrets.org and we will be happy to respond to your issues.
 
Hugs to all the fuzzies from the Ferretguy.  Sorry this was so long Bob!
[Moderator's note: You mean Bill?  This was posted in two parts and was
combined into one.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 3103]