Back at ferret frolics at Kirkand's Marina waterfront park run by the vet
techs of Dr. Skip Nelson's Exotic Pet and Bird Clinic, this bit of sadness
noted.
 
Why is it that I cringe in disbelief every time I see a person do a
one-hand pickup of a ferret by its rib cage?  People just reach down and
grasp the ferret by its rib cage and it's up and away.  You see this as
contestants are in a hurry at a pet show or a frolic event and seem to have
little or no concern at all to the very strong possibility that they are
going to fracture the ferret's ribs with this swift one-handed snatch away
of their ferret.  There is consideralbly increased danger of rib fracture
or even a spinal dislocation when the one-handed snatch away is done to the
older more mature ferret, especially the overweight and obese "fat-assed"
ferrets.  Some 75 percent of their body weight is rearward of the rib cage
and the one-handed snatch-away cannot but help from putting tremendous
deflection on the sternum of the ferret and a pretty good compression
loading of the lungs and heart.
 
Let me suggest that a ferret be picked up with two hands simultaneously.
One hand is slid unter the ferret from his front, your palm upwards and
slow enough so your ferret recognizes you skin scent and the other hand
slid under his rear paws, also palm up and then use both hands to lift the
ferret and either drape him parallel on your forearm horizontally or better
yet place him vertically on your chest, his nose just under your chin while
you support him with one hand against his back, thereby holding him to your
chest.  Let your ferret have the feeling of security when he's at heights
above ground.
 
It just seems like ordinary common sense to me to pick up a ferret
properly, so that you minimize the possibility of broken ribs, vertebral
separation, or piercing the lungs or heart with a compressed and possibly
infolded and fractured sternum.
 
More than anything else I know, this idiotic treatment of ferrets really
gets me angry every time I see it.  I try to demonstrate what I consider a
healthier way by using the 2-hand pickup.  I hope you do too.
 
Edward Lipinski  Y B NML?
[Posted in FML issue 2726]