Hi - second posting as promised.
 
Thank you to those FMLers that posted to me privately about my last missive.
It is very encouraging to get such positive feedback, I have found through
my life that I accumulated far more information in discussion than I did in
argument.  I'm glad to see that others think in a like manner.
 
In this post, I would like to attempt to put a different slant on some of
the statements that have been made on the FML in the recent past week or so,
regarding ferrets in England and some of opinions that have been put
forward.
 
What we seem to forget here in the UK is that the USA is a very much larger
country and there may be other factors involved in ferret ailments that may
in some part be due to climatic conditions specific to certain parts of the
US, or a combination of that and many other factors.  A lot of posters to
the FML, including people in the US, when discussing ferret ailments and
conditions, appear to think they are comparing like with like, but very
often, this just isn't so.  Here in the UK ferrets are, on the whole, fed on
an entirely different diet, I have also noted that the diet on which other
FMLers all over the USA feed to their ferrets, differs by type, brand etc..-
what difference does any of this make to the long-term general well bein g
of the ferret - we don't know - what difference does it make to feed a meat
or whole carcass diet as opposed to a dried diet - we don't really know that
for sure either.  None of the long-term effects of the differing conditions
in which ferrets are kept throughout the world, and the almost infinite
combinations thereof, are know for sure and yet people are quite happily
posting general opinions as if they know the answers to every situation
without undertaking even the slightest amount of research.
 
Sheila Crompton seem to draw from the low incidence of various conditions
reported here in the UK, against those occurring in the USA, that this is
proof that UK ferrets are healthier and less subject to disease than their
US counterparts.  I cannot agree, not necessarily because I believe that
statement to be wrong, but because the comparison of like with like is not
being made.  I don't agree simply because I just do not know whether or not
that statement is true, and neither does anybody else.  In all honesty,
Sheila, how many of the ferrets, of the entire ferret population of the UK,
do you think see a vet on a regular basis?  The people that you know, and
that I know, are a very small proportion of the entire ferret keeping
population of these Isles, and yes, those ferrets get regular veterinary
attention, in addition, because we are knowledgeable about ferrets and, to
some degree, the complaints from which they suffer, we are able to choose
our vets wisely and make sure that they know something of ferret veterinary
medicine and procedures.  Many vets in this country do not even want to
treat ferrets, and when was the last time you spoke to a vet that has had
8,000 ferrets through the practice.  Even the most eminent of ferret vets in
the UK, that you have mentioned, has had nowhere near this number in his
whole time of being practice.  I would say that at a conservative estimate
90% of ferrets in this country have never, and will never, see a vet.  (I
base this on my assumption that approximately 10% of ferret keepers belong
to one or other of the various welfare societies, I don't think I'm being
unrealistic there.) This being the case, I don't see how comparisons can be
made with a country where the opposite is true.  Until ferret welfare
societies, the one to which I belong included, started to post mortem
ferrets that died, nobody was positively aware that UK ferrets suffered from
the various tumours that have since been found, as well as the other
conditions that were mentioned in Sheila's posting.  Had the vets and
veterinary pathologists been asked, at that time in the not too distant
past, they could have said in all honesty that none of these tumours had
been evident in the ferrets they had examined, that doesn't however mean
that the conditions didn't exist, just that they have examined very few, if
any ferrets, and that of those few, none had died from those conditions.
Although Sheila states that none of them had seen cases of insulinoma or
adrenal adenoma in British ferrets, try to get them to be so positive about
whether or not they think those conditions actually *exist* in any British
ferrets at the moment and if so, what would be their estimate of the
incidence.  I think the answer is likely to be that they would be unable to
pass an opinion due to insufficient data being available to them.  This is
not the same as saying that these conditions do not exist in British
ferrets.  Professionals, such as vets, are usually very specific in the
statements that they make in response to any questions put, and will only
couch the reply in terms of what was actually asked, if you need any sort of
meaningful answer on which to commence a sensible discussion, then, the
trick is to ask the right question.  As far as I'm aware, prior to about 5
years ago it was very rare for a ferret to be subjected to a post mortem
examination, as far as most people were concerned, their ferret got sick and
died and that was it - cause was never investigated.  Most couldn't be
bothered as there were plenty of other ferrets where that one had come from.
At agricultural and other shows that my society attend during the summer, we
have found it very difficult to get information from people on the medical
history of their ferrets when they come and talk to us about problems or
deaths that they may have experienced with the ferrets in their care.  They
simply do not take them to the vet and neither do they want to, they simply
want us to say, <oh yes that's *so & so*, when you get home, give them a
dose of *blah, blah, blah* and they will be cured>.  When you suggest that
they take them to a vet and that you could recommend one that would be able
to help, they seem surprised, "It's only a ferret" they say, "I'm not
spending 20 pounds at the vets, if it dies I'll get another one for 1
pound".  The vast majority of the ferret owning public have this attitude
and Sheila being involved in ferret welfare in this country is, I'm sure,
aware of that.  Despite the numbers of ferrets around, real and meaningful
veterinary knowledge is still quite scarce in the UK.
 
I also disagree that ferrets in the USA have about 30% less life expectancy
than in the UK, to my knowledge, no such data exists.  So, once again we
simply don't know and wild statistics are being thrown around with no real
backing.  This sort of thing is of no help to anybody.  If there is a body
of data on ferret life expectancy, I should like to be directed to it, or
any other such data in the UK.  As some of you will know, for the last four
years or so, I have been very interested in the differences between ferrets
in the UK and the USA, how they are treated, fed, bred and generally cared
for.  I think that a proper study of those differences could be of great
value on both sides of the pond.  Once a ferret reaches 5 years of age, it
is considered elderly in the USA, but so is it here and although the ferrets
age span is usually given as 8 - 13 years, it is extremely rare to come
across an animal that gets near the middle, let alone the latter part of
that spread.
 
Sheila Crompton said in her post of 1st February that breeders such as Bill
Killian could help to improve the lot of US ferrets - who said that they
aren't attempting that already?  I think that my previous post on the
polecat/ferret cross should demonstrate to Sheila that breeders such as Bill
Killian are trying to improve the lot of US ferrets, and that there are
other people trying to give practical help instead of mouthing off and
stating the obvious.  Of course the breeders in the US think that there may
be something wrong!  They are not stupid.  The point is that there is, to my
knowledge, no statistical information regarding ferrets in the US that
suffer from the problems mentioned, neither is there any sort of information
in the UK, so why bother to try make the comparison.  In fact, in the
absence of any kind of solid statistical information on these matters, it
cannot be said with any certainty that a problem really exists at all.  I
don't mean to be unkind here, and I realise that each individual case is a
very real and personal problem for the ferret and its owner, but in the
general picture, there would only be an overall problem if the incidence of
the diseases/cancers was statistically greater in the US than it was
elsewhere.  As far I am aware, there is no such body of data demonstrating
the frequency of occurrence of these conditions in the US or, of any other
data set from other countries that would show a problem existed by
comparison.
 
Some of the better breeders in the US are very concerned about these
matters, that is why they have embarked on a breeding programme that is
taking in new bloodlines.  In this way, they will hopefully get some
indication as to whether or not these conditions have been brought about by
the effects of close breeding that has been forced upon them from the
beginnings of their operations.  Even so, it is going to be a long time
before any kind of solid proof is forthcoming.  I sincerely hope that the
problem, if there is one, is as simple as being one of breeding, but even
that *simple* problem will be difficult enough, both to prove and then to
rectify.  I started this post by saying that we don't know how diverse
conditions affect ferrets and my own feeling is that the problems are more
complex than just breeding and possibly involve the action of a number of
differing factors coming together and acting upon each other, i.e. breeding,
feeding, lighting, general environment, even perhaps, such things as
additives to water supply.  To complicate matters, it may also be possible
that these factors have differing effects in combination with the climatic
conditions in different parts of the US, who knows.  This, of course, is
only a general theory on my part and is in no way factually based.  I would
also like to add that I don't think the health difficulties are anybody's
*fault*, and that if any problems actually do exist in the US, they have
just come about purely by circumstance.
 
One difference that I have noticed between the US and the UK is that ferrets
are viewed from a different vantage point in both countries.  In my opinion,
the US attitude is far more sentimental and anthropomorphic than that in the
UK.  I'm not saying that I think that is necessarily a bad thing, or that
the UK view is right, just that they are different.  Because of that, it is
very easy to sit here in the UK and say that all Americans are silly, they
don't know what they are talking about, and that they have brought their
problems on themselves.  It is also equally easy for Americans to say that
Brits are hard-hearted, uncaring individuals, who use ferrets for killing
other animals, and are not really interested in the welfare of their
ferrets, or anyone else's opinion.  Well, I've got news for you, neither of
those statements are true.  What we are missing here is that because of our
differences, we have each acquired our own respective pool of knowledge and,
I for one would like to get the benefit of any knowledge that I don't have
at present wherever, and whoever, it comes from.  What is being silly and
uncaring, as far as your ferrets are concerned, is not recognising and
taking advantage of that.
 
--
George Parker
[Posted in FML issue 2216]