You wrote from the people sending you their numbers:
> Ferrets living...
> greater than 1 year, 124, 70%
> greater than 2 years, 82, 47%
> greater than 3 years, 59, 34%
> greater than 4 years, 45, 26%
> greater than 5 years, 33, 19%
> greater than 6 years, 16, 9%
> greater than 7 years, 5, 3%
> greater than 8 years, 1, 1%
> greater than 9 years 1, 1%
Over half the ferrets not making it to 3 years?
I think that perhaps you are hearing mostly from
1. people who are pulling your leg
or
2. people who are inexperienced
or
3. people who preferentially take in ferrets with illnesses, handicaps,
severe abuse backgrounds, or genetic problems
or
4. people working from roughly estimated ages
We DID make a point of taking in ones with serious genetic problems
back when we could afford to do so. (The reason I say afford is that
these individuals cost us up to around $2,000 per year each for medical
needs. Tanking in ferrets with serious deformities is not for most
people, and they also require more time and more creativity.) Even
then, in about 27 years with ferrets we only lost 3 before the age
of 3 years. One had JL (Juvenile Lyphoma), one had serious birth
malformations (especially of her liver) and got Avian Mycobacteria
which killed her by completely destroying the lining of her intestines,
and the third had DIM.
One suspicion I have is that the people who have the most experience
also lack the time to participate in your kind of survey, so it may be
interesting for you to learn the experience levels of those who are
responding. The combo could have useful data to alert vets and others
who try to help to care and info needs which we might not normally
suspect.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
[Posted in FML 6154]
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