>From:    artemis <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Regrowing scent glands? (further update--long)
>For those who don't know (and yet care) I had my newest ferret descented in
>December of 1996 by a vet in town that I didn't know at all (mistake #1).
>The vet ruputured one of the glands while trying to remove it.
 
 
I am at a loss to understand why on earth ferrets are descented - neutering
is the only operation required to get rid of the strong ferret musky smell.
One ferret, Buddy, stank to high heaven when I took him to the vet last week
for castration.  When I put Buddy on my vets table his first words to him
were "Gawd you stink!!" Buddy's glands had been working overtime producing
the oil that makes their coat smell so much during the breeding season - we
consider it a 'stink' but a jill would no doubt find it extremely
attractive:-)  It's only 5 days since his operation and his strong ferrety
'pong' has disappeared, the little black bits have gone from his fur - (and
he hasn't been bathed too much bathing can also make a ferret stink!) he's
still living on his own at present because it will take a few weeks for his
hormones to settle down.
 
Claude who was castrated 3 weeks ago has joined in with a group of 9
ferrets, he was accepted with no fuss at all from the others.  One thing I
have noticed is that it is easier to get a fairly large group to accept a
new member than trying to introduce a 'new' one into a small 'family' of say
four ferrets.
 
I now have 36 ferrets (a new 'boy' arrived yesterday plus another one could
be here within 2 days - I've dropped a strong hint to the RSPCA that my vet
would like a 'donation' from them to help cover the cost of neutering all
the ferrets they keep expecting me to take in!) - all live indoors.  Even
Carnath doesn't have a strong musky smell and he's just vasectomised!  It's
absolutely ages since any of them have 'skunked' - and even then the smell
soon disappears with the help of Ferret Off.
 
Sheila Crompton
 
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http://www.btinternet.com/~sheila/ferrets.htm
Bolton Ferret Welfare & Newsletter Editor of the
National Ferret Welfare Society of the UK
The opinions expressed by me are not necessarily those of the NFWS
[Posted in FML issue 1888]