Sorry!  Seems I mispoke myself.  What I meant was sort of what Jeff Johnston
said.  I did know that the hormone injection did not "cause" cancer but
could help it along if an animal is pre-disposed to it.  When I said that
Coco was "too far gone" to spay, I meant she had been in season so long, her
blood count was too low to have surgery.  After talking it over with my boss
(vet), we decided that breeding her would be the lesser of two evils in this
particular case.  I did not rashly decide to breed her.  And every case
should be taken on a case to case basis.  We did both feel that the
injection does not always work and I have decided to not use it.  That is
why I now have a dud stud.  Of course, everytime a jill goes through a false
pregnancy, it can increase the risk of uterine infections like pyometra,
even though ferrets do seem to have less of problem with this than dogs (I
did do a rescue once that had an extreme case of pyometra, poor girl!).  I
guess I just tried to shorten the story too much and left out some important
details.
 
To Jerry Price:
There is a ferret sitting service called the Ferret Inn in Lansing.  It
would be a bit of a drive, but their service is so excellent, that people
come from all over the state to use them.  I have seen their set up and it's
good.  All fuzzies get minimum time out to play, and the fewer there, the
more time out they get.  They have 12 ferts of their own and give lots of
love to any boarding there.  The prices are very reasonable too.  If you
would like their number, just e-mail me for it.
 
To Bill Killian:
Guess you had the same problem I had: leaving out important details!  If you
had mentioned the tattoos, I would never had asked.  However, I cannot
always tell a "ranch" ferret from a pet.  My breeder friends' ferrets look
just as nice as "pets" and often win Rosettes and Trophys at shows (as do
mine :)).  When I mentioned having to do an exploratory to determine spayed
or not, I was referring to strays, not relinquished ferrets.  Fortunately,
I've never had to "put one under the knife" just to determine that, and hope
I never have to.  I too am a firm believer in not putting a ferret under
unnecessarily.  The people debating on whether to put an animal under for a
dentistry must not have ever done a FULL dentistry on a ferret.  You cannot
get under the gums with a scraper with an awake animal.  You need them out
cold and use a special dental machine.  This is important because gingivitis
can be very bad and lead to other problems such as heart disease.  Also, if
they are under anesthesia, you can do a "prophy" too (polish the teeth with
a high speed tool/cup dipped in a toothpaste type paste made for animals).
We also then do a fluoride treatment to help slow down calculus build up on
the teeth.
 
Well, I think this is more than long enough!
 
Have a great day everyone,
Tracy, Cooter, Talyn, Easel, etc....
[Posted in FML issue 1660]