>From:    Lisa Whittleton <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Marshall ferrets
>
>After reading the post yesterday on "exposing" Marshall and their poor
>breeding stock as well as shipping out too young ferrets, I can only
>agree.  I have one Hagen ferret, Bentley, who is a year and a half.  He
>is a big boy (near four pounds!), no health problems, super goofy and
>loves life and people.
 
Well, as another single point of reference my Hagen ferret Amelia has
always been a big girl (usually a little over a kilo, hearty robust
build), loves life and people, but was diagnosed with adrenal at age 5,
insulinoma at age 6 and now has in addition to that a heart murmur,
probable lymphoma, most likely the other adrenal acting up, and a mast
cell tumor.  She's also been mostly deaf her whole life (waardenburg
syndrome).  She meets all this with a lot of strength that I sometimes
think is due to her breeding, but this is just to point out that these
sorts of health problems are not limited to Marshall ferrets.
 
Then there was Cully, of unknown origin, no tattoos (maybe a private
Canadian breeder, as I adopted him in Quebec), and he had a similar
complex of problems, although no heart murmur and no deafness.  Again,
just goes to show these problems aren't limited to Marshall ferrets.
My ferrets have never even _met_ a Marshall ferret :-)
 
Regina
[Posted in FML issue 3743]