Hi Caroline!
My name is Carrie and I have four Hagen ferrets. Shawnee is a rescue,
she's 4 yrs old and a silver. Slinky is 3 1/2 yrs old and a silver. Vixen
is 3 yrs old and a sable mitt. Chewy is 1 yr old and a siamese blaze (I
think). I'm no ferret expert or anything and telling the colors is hard
for me. I have pix at
http://members.tripod.com/~cduc/photoalbum/index.html
just click on next after each page.
I'm responding because of your Hagen query. All of mine were fine, except
Vixen. I bought her at a local pet shop when she was 6 weeks old. All my
ferrets were fixed and descented. At about 6 months of age, Vixen started
acting funny. She's a real Mama's girl and is very attentive to me. When
I call her, she always comes to me. All of a sudden this stopped. She was
sleeping a lot and one day while I was cleaning her cage, just as I brought
the cleaned cage into the room and was putting in the litter, she jumped
into the non-litter area, where the blanket wasn't down yet, and peed.
There was blood in the urine, so I looked at her vulva and saw it was very
enlarged. Needless to say, I freaked!!! Luckily, I'd bought a Ferret book
prior to ever buying a Ferret (and had read it)! I knew that a heat was
dangerous to a female ferret who wasn't bred. So I called my Vet
immediately.
My Vet gave her a shot, as she was in heat, and said that when she was
well, we'd have to reoperate. I was fuming and called the Pet Shop
immediately. They were out of business! So, I found her adoption papers
and among them was a certificate from Hagen that she'd had an
ovario-hysterectomy. I called Hagen and was put in touch with their vet,
Dr. Bauck. She was very helpful, right from the start. She took my
information and contacted her bosses with it. They agreed that if Vixen
were operated and any reproductive material was found, they'd repay me for
the surgery. A whole ovary was left in Vixen! I had to go to Hagen's Vet
for the surgery, in my area though. After the surgery, a Hagen rep, picked
up the ovary that the Vet had kept for them and they took it to their lab.
They repaid me for the surgery. On that score, Hagen stood by their word.
Problem is that if I hadn't known how dangerous it was for Vixen to be in
heat, I might have ignored it figuring it would pass. Most animals can go
through a heat without being bred with no danger to their lives. Also,
when you buy a "fixed" ferret, the Pet Shop doesn't even think to warn you
about this because the animal is supposed to be "fixed". I could have lost
Vixen easily, right then! If I purchased Vixen at 6 weeks of age, at what
age was she operated on? How big can an ovary of a 4-5 week old ferret be?
It must be really easy to miss! Why not sell them later or wait to operate
and sell them at a lower cost? This has been my question since that 2 week
period from Hell where my Vixen's life hung in the balance!
If you need any other information just let me know. I still have all of
the bills and any written communications that I had from the Vet and Hagen.
Vixen saw two separate Vet's at first and both confirmed she had been in
heat. Please keep in touch with me as I am really interested in all of
this!
NB: If a person has a Hagen ferret and it needs to be
re-ovario-hysterectomied, or whatever, check with Hagen before every move,
otherwise you'll lose out financially. When we brought Vixen home I needed
a new cage to isolate her while her surgery about 3 1/2 " long on her
abdomen (it took up her entire underside just about). I purchased the
extra cage at a Pet Shop and asked Hagen to reimburse me for it and they
said no. They said that if I needed a cage, I could have asked them and
they'd have provided one for free. I only thought of it on the way home
from the Vet with Vixen after her surgery! I had other things on my mind
and wasn't thinking clearly then. So, besides the cost of surgery, ask
Hagen prior to purchasing any pet supplies.
Hope this is of help! Carrie and the furbrats at [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2675]
|
