Dear Anonymous, vasectomized hobs (nicknamed "dud studs", abbreviated vas.
hobs) tend to usually be effective at bringing females out of heat.  At
first I thought that you missed the mentions of these males, but then it
became apparent that you likely are not familiar with the practise or the
terms used so didn't catch that portion of each letter.  Hope this sets
your mind to rest.  It's an established practise with long use.  There are
also hormonal shots that sometimes work.  Just an FYI.
 
It IS interesting, though, and very useful for those in areas where it is
not widely used to see that a rare (?) cancer like ovarian cancer increases
its rate when this is used standardly instead of spaying, so S.H. passed
along some very important information which can help others when she posted
about that.  Please, don't be so fast to jump on others who organize their
lives differently from you; none of us has all the answers so we all have
room for learning, and when people post things they have learned that adds
to our data bases and helps everyone.  Remember that if this is not a
common malignancy that it can take a good bit of time to get enough numbers
(and to have someone look at rates in the practise and notice a change in
any direction because of the rarity).  Also, if something is standard in
one area it won't be until vets get discussing the differences between
their areas and the presentations of certain illnesses that something
different and helpful may be noticed.
 
Sometimes people have had hard days so they don't write as clearly as they
otherwise may have done, ditto reading clearing.  We are all only human and
not as wise as ferrets.  (Hey, ask any ferret.)
 
10 deep breaths and hold the letter for a day before sending to calm down,
please?  Okay?  That's what I did with this.  Remember that recently I have
heard from a number of people who were afraid to post USEFUL information
about their ferrets with acute presentations of adrenal tumors because they
don't want people who incorrectly ASSUME they must have missed a symptom
jumping all over them.  These people have information which can help other
ferrets and their people.  They sometimes had to deal with serious problems
feeling that they could not ask for help because of how others might react.
Some lost their treasured ferrets when the adrenal remained silent but a
severe complication suddenly arose without warning, but they felt that they
would be flamed if they said anything.  It is VERY important that people
who want to send in strident letters think about re-wording them in a way
which would NOT scare folks away from the FML and won't prevent the rest of
us from getting such information.  I really hurt for some of these people.
Let's let them be frank, and let's understand that perhaps a letter isn't
worded quite as clearly as it should be, or perhaps not read as clearly,
also that some pieces of information are not easily come by.
 
E-Pax, please!
[Posted in FML issue 3109]