>1. I have a chewer, he chews all his blankets what can I do?
>2. Are the fuzzies suppose to eat eggs and drink orange juice, he likes
>   both?
 
Either in moderation should be fine; the cooked egg being good as a
supplement, the orange juice being more of a treat.  Ferrets, unlike
humans, make their own vitamin C so don't need much in the way of external
sources.
 
>I have been told that Vaseline works as a hairball laxative.
 
Works fine as a hairball laxative.  In fact I'd recommend it for insulinomic
ferret because the commercial hairball laxatives contain sugars.  A little
Ferretone mixed in with it will usually have even fussy ferrets taking it.
 
>I was doing ears yesterday and I noticed today that Missitoo's one ear is
>inflammed, red all around the outside.  She doesn't want it touched.
 
Penny, sounds like an infection.  Best to let a vet look at it to see if he
wants to put her on antibiotics or whether he feels an external ointment
will do the trick.  I believe that we used Tresaderm (sp) the last time
one of ours had a similar problem.
 
>while talking to the vet she mentioned hearing about heartworms showing
>up in ferrets.  Said she was going to do some research on it and to call
>her mid-March and she would have the details.
 
Here in NH, we've had two shelter ferrets come in with heartworm.  One had
additional complications with an adrenal tumor and insulinoma.  Our vet
successfully treated the heartworm (with a consultation from Dr. Kemmemer).
He used a once month treatment of Heartguard (heartworm preventative) for
six months, plus pediapred.  Both recovered from the heartworm, but the one
died later of complications of the insulinoma.
 
>My vet is sending the sample to University of Tennessee for "the test."
>The charge here in CaCa land is $130 including the U of T charges.  I
>understand that U of T charges are about $80.  CaCa land strikes again.
 
Whew, $130!!!  I understand that the Univ. of Tenn. charges $75, unless
they went up recently on the price.  The test is usually very good, I
understand that there are somewhat more false negatives (finding no
evidence of adrenal tumors when there are) than false positives (finding
evidence of a tumor when there isn't).
 
>I've been giving my ferrets small amounts of cheese whenever I eat cheese
>sandwishes, they get small amounts of heavy cream once in a while as a
>treat, sometimes ordinary milk, etc.  Neither of them have become ill,
>and I believe it's because I've gradually introduced it in their diet.
 
I have one who considers it her absolute right to share my bowl of Cheerios
every morning, and that includes the milk.  She's 6+ now and doing just
fine.
 
>I just opened a 30 lb bag of Totally Ferret, and my guys have turned thier
>noses up at it.  Is anyone else having this problem?
 
Try grinding up their old food into a powder and sprinkling it over a
mixture of mostly old food and Totally Ferret.  Gradually decrease the
amount of old food and powder over a one month period, and increasing the
amount of Totally Ferret.  Ferrets, like most weasels, imprint on food by
smell at a young age.  If it doesn't smell like "food," it isn't eatable
as far as they are concerned.
 
A ferret's urine is usually acidic, pH of about 6.  Ferrets metabolize
magnesium ammonium phosphate (struvite) from animal protein.  When the pH
is 6 the struvite is dissolved.  A diet high in corn produces an alkaline
urine that causes the struvite to crystallize, forming the stones.  That's
one of the reasons to avoid ferret food containing corn near the top in the
list of ingredients.
 
>Ferrets appear to be immune to the plague.  Not just ferrets, but polecats
>in general, including our beloved black-footed ferrets.
 
In Fox's latest edition of "Biology and Diseases of the Ferret" he
describes the use of ferrets in Manila during the 14th century to control
the rat population which was spreading the Black Plague.
 
"Some of these [human] work forces had fox terriers imported especially
from Australia because of their agility and quickness.  Others used trained
ferrets that responded to their master's calls, like dogs.  The ferrets
were even more effective than dogs in killing rats.  The ferret would grasp
the rats in its jaws, and its teeth would sever the rat's spinal column....
Although attention was given to treating rat bite wound infections in
ferrets, I could find no discussions on ferrets that hunted plague-infected
rats becoming infected with the plague bacillus."
 
Dick B.
4 Li'l Paws Ferret Shelter
[Posted in FML issue 2600]