Brian wrote:
>We have to reclining rocking "Lazy Boy" chairs in our main ferret room.
>We usually do not use theses when the ferrets are out.  We would like to
>ferret proof them so there is little chance of a bad accident.
 
Back before people started comparing notes recliners were a common cause of
death, usually by crushing, though I believe I recall at least one partial
decapitation being mentioned, and one with a leg severed.
 
Reminder for all who have not done so.  Be SURE to read
http://www.ferretcentral.org.
Also, perfect for some types of health info are
http://www.afip.org/ferret.index.html, http://www.ferretdoctor.com, and
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc .
 
Two are entirely by vets (one a vet pathologist) and are at least as useful
for vets as they are for lay-people.  The other two are by a combination.
In Ferret Central (Note that is .org, NOT .com which is more recent and
less complete.) info on things like ferret-proofing, ear cleaning, natural
history, behavior, training, etc.  are there as well as health info.  It
also has LOT of links for sites dealing with specific concerns.
 
Fur loss from ONLY the tail could be adrenal but most often it indicates a
skin condition.  See vet.
 
K, first off, stop the hitting and the intimidation.  This sounds possibly
like an individual who might have a reason to bite such as past abuse, or
pain from a medical condition.  Has she had a full medical check, including
dental?  If it's from past abuse there are answers but they are NOT fast
(as in a couple of months); such ferrets (or individuals of any type) need
to instead find TRUST for people and that means a long period of putting up
with being hurt by the critter while not causing pain or fear yourself.  If
not up to it then you need to ask on list for someone who is near enough to
you and is up to it.  It is a horrible job during the rough time, but when
its done you get the most loving critter imaginable.  It is possible to
find a pair in which one is doting and the other is nasty; that sometimes
means that being nasty was the only way that one could be attention; so she
needs to learn that is no longer so.  Everyone knows a number of households
in which there are two human children or more with one being the preferred
child (sometimes strongly) and another being the "bad" child.  People tend
to CREATE these situations and I suspect that may be what happened to this
little one.  You know the saying, "You name the dog, then the dog takes
that name..." The good side is that it is easier to learn that one isn't
the absolutely worst individual on the planet than it is to learn that one
isn't perfect.
 
J, make a vet appointment.  Ferrets also should have an initial medical
check and fecal scan.  Talk with the vet beforehand and discuss the
vaccinations.  Read in past FML issues and in the Ferret Central .org
address above about the safest ways to give these.
 
Cedar is the wood to worry about, but some INDIVIDUALS have an INDIVIDUAL
allergy to pine.  Here's a good reference which will help you:
http://www.trifl.org/cedar.html with a biomed. lit. review on cedar and
on pine.
 
It's important that people remember that in breeding specific breeds of
dogs there have been ones developed which have very shortened lives (some
only as long as ferrets), ones which have a huge chance of having back
problems at some point, ones with any number of assorted difficulties.
At least in some of those people were breeding for a working function,
even if the sick or injured were considered disposable (esp.  with pups
easy to come by and if the function did not involved complicated training
that would take a very long time).  When people breed for a LOOK without
considering the attendant problems then health and longevity can be
sacrificed for nothing more than appearances.  When fancy looks become the
rage then there is even more interbreeding of such individuals which can
worsen the health of the population as a whole, given that the population
then has an increasing proportion of individuals with health difficulties
being bred.  If someone were to say to you, "You want to get my ferrets'
offspring because such and such champions are the dame and sire, so just
ignore that the line only lives to ages between 4 and 6." what would your
response be?  (Note that we are talking about ferrets still living longer
than do the wild relations but shorter than by other household
populations.)  Yes, a lot of this is still just supposition in ferrets
specifically, but some of the same sorts of genetic conditions discussed
are common throughout Mammalia and do have nasty impacts on health and on
life-spans in the studies on other mammals with them, and some of these
appear to be conditions extending back to some basal mammals (or possible
before) and having mechanisms which are common throughout.  Pigmentation
and the distribution of pigments are linked to a LOT of health
difficulties.  When people breed just for appearances they can cause some
really terrible results.
[Posted in FML issue 3123]