Hi,

I don't know if this subject has been aired before (probably) but as a
newbie I thought I would ask opinions of people who have bought baby
ferrets which have been neutered/spayed at 7 weeks old.

In the UK it has been standard practice for most animals to be N/S
when they either reach maturity or come into season, this applies to
ferrets. It used to be when a jill came into season she was given a
'jill jab' to bring her out of season then she can be Spayed. Another
alternative route used by some people (not me personally) is to put the
jill with a vasectomised hob not pleasant and jill will most likely
have a phantom pregnancy.

Over the past 3(ish) years (I don't have the link but am sure you can
google it) attitude has been changing in according to new research etc.
Now most vets are pulling away from N/S and prefer to use the Deslorin
implant. This stops jills and hobs from coming into season for approx
2 years with the 4.2g and 4+ years with the 9.4g. The Deslorin implant
is also used to halt symptoms of Adrenal disease e.g. hairloss.

Again I don't have a link but there is evidence which connects Adrenal
disease with N/S at an early age. I am not an academic I can't quote
who scientists were, am also not very good with computers so can't use
links. We have now stopped N/S our own ferrets and use the implant
which so far has been excellent. We have a wee albino jill who is 10
yrs old and has been very frail since she came to us, we had been using
the jill jab but now she has been implanted she with no side effects.
The 3 others we implanted and our skunk showed no side effects at all.
We will continue to N/S ferrets who will be adopted as the risk of
breeding is to high, we can do all kinds of checks and get it wrong,
so we don't take chances.

I have had zero cases of Adrenal in almost 5 years of rescuing (approx
300), I have heard of a few on some UK sites but single figures rather
than 10's 20's etc. I would be interested in opinions and or experience
of this horrid disease. Any hints and tips would be great as I am sure
there is lots of really experienced ferret owners.

Thanks
Karen Binnie-Douglas

[Posted in FML 7460]