My hats off to you all who have more than one ferret..which seems to be
the majority.  Chandler now has his girlfriend, so that makes 2...I CANNOT
FATHOM 6 ferrets, definitly not 20.
 
I made the drive to pick up "socks" on friday, her mommy and daddy are
wonderful people, and socks cagemate "bear" is a HUGE handsome boy.  Socks
on the other hand is perfectly petite, not much more than a pound and about
9mos. old.  QUESTION she has only one tattoo in her ear, can someone tell
me where she possibly came from?
 
WHAT A DIFFERNCE I have noticed between the 2 fuzzbutts, size,
personality..  you can definitly tell that socks is much more mature,
Chandler is such a toddler at 12 weeks of age, but he is bigger than her.
 
And having a hearing ferret really cements the fact that chandler cannot
hear, Socks is SO alert.  I know I was going to change her name to Phoebe..
andI still may..QUESTION, do you think after 9 mos.  she recognizes socks
as her name?
 
THE ONLY BUMMER is that she came to me with fleas and BAD litter box
habits..she does not even use corners.  i noticed fea poop on her and
found a flea on her face and immediatly put her in the tub(what a traumatic
first day home) I managed to get 3 fleas off of her, what a perfect little
girl she was in the tub, I cooed and talked to her the whole time and she
stood perfectly still as I bathed her :) then I checked chandler over, and
found a flea on him..those little @#stards didnot waste any time..so I gave
him a bath and washed both their bedding scrubbed out the cages and
prayed..well as I write this I saw her scratching, DARN!!!!!
 
SO IF I MAY ADDRESS THE FLEA PROBLEM;
Having studied the little vampires in school and having TONS of experience
with animals loaded with them, and different products, what works and what
does not.
 
1. flea collars..basically useless, keeps the fleas off the neck..MAYBE,
I have seen those buggers walk right over them, and possibly toxic to
your cat or dog and or irratating to the skin, the collars may be better
used in your vacuum cleaner bag.
 
2. flea shampoos..especially store bought ones are pretty weak and
ineffectual, veterinary purchased shampoos are better, though It is MY
BELIEF that keeping your ferret/pet lathered for 10 to 15 minutes
(sometimes VERY difficult) is what kills the fleas literally by drowning
them .  FLEA shampoos have no residual affect so as soon as you put you
baby back on the floor, the fleas hop right back on.(some dips have a
residual, but we dont use dips on ferrets) and once again they may be
toxic or irratating...any of these products might because they all contain
poisons.
 
Flea bombs..personally I find them all useless..unless of course
the room(s) being bombed are completely void of all furniture..because
bombs cant get under couches ect..ONE IMPORTANT NOTE,to my knowledge there
is not any product on the market that kills all 4 stages of the fleas life
cycle..so if the product says it kills eggs and adults, you STILL have the
pupa and larva stage..Most of the products say they have a residual of 3 to
6 mos.. I have yet to find one that does, so you are constantly treating
for fleas.
 
Area sprays.  I find to be the most effective, Of course the good ones
tend to be rather spendy, upwards of 25 dollars per can per 2,000 sq. ft.
 
BECAUSE THIS IS THE DEAL, fleas like dark dusty places, that is when they
are not on you or your pet.  Fleas can surrive in an empty home for up to a
year, in a hibernative type state, and come "ALIVE" when the home is once
again inhabited.YOU REALLY have to take a very aggressive, possibly spendy,
time consumming approach to rid yourself 100% of fleas, actually I have
been flea FREE for 2 years til friday.  dont let my cats outside so they
dont bring anything into my home.
 
1st. remove pets from home after either bathing them properly and
thoroughly or taking them to the vets to have it done..
 
WASH bedding...(hot water) AREA spray home, (Siphotrol by vetchem) spraying
all corners edges, furniture, under furniture, in closets, under and behind
fridge, vacuum THOROUGHLY, throw away vac. bag.  Use Advantage or the
Program on your pet.  you may have to repeat this procedure(more than
likely) in about 2 weeks, though if your pet is on advantage, do not bath
or you will remove it from there skin.  Oh, after treating the entire
house, WASH any floor surface that is not carpeted, you may or may not see
the little guys draggng their half dead butts across your kitchen floor.
change vacuum cleaner bag constantly.  I PROMISE YOU IF YOU FOLLOW THESE
PROCEDURES U WILL BE FLEA FREE.  IF YOU HAVE A BACKYARD, and let your dogs
and cats and ferrets in and out of the house, you will HAVE to treat the
yard and the house perimeter.  If one pet is on the Advantage or program,
they all have to be for it t do it's job...Sorry BIG for the length of
this, if you wanna hack off the part that is not flea related, be my
guest..If anyone has any questions please feel free to e-mail me.
 
Thanks
June, Chandler and Socks!!
[Posted in FML issue 2545]