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>
>Out of eleven ferrets, six of them (55%) have or had serious medical
>issues while four of them (36%) have died from those issues.  Out of
>four dogs and two cats, for example, we've had only ONE animal die from
>a medical condition...
>
>So the underlying question to all of this is: Why are ferrets so darned
>sickly animals?
 
These are good questions and it does appear on the surface that ferrets
are sickly creatures.  However, their life span is also shorter than a
dog or cat.  They live about 6-8 years, at least that is the most common
number quoted for American ferrets.  Whether it is the lack of genetic
diversity, or they just aren't expected to live any longer due to their
species and breed.  Polecats I understand live much shorter lives in
the wild, so domesticated ferrets have a relatively good life span.
Insulinoma is possibly related to our feeding them kibble, which is high
in carbs, just a theory.  Some of the ferrets that die at the older ages
( 5-8 years old) may have just been at the end of their life span and
something causes death.  I hate to hear my so and so died of old age,
something caused the death.  Whether heart or kidney failure, or cancer
or something.
 
I have so far owned 2 dogs, one is a pure breed, between knee surgery
and lately osteosarcoma of her jaw, she has cost me well over $2000 in
medical bills.  She is a sweetheart, but for a dog "sickly".  The other
is a mutt and is fine so far.  For my cats, well they do get medical
problems, diabetes, kidney stones, etc are all problems for cats, but
they tend to have an average life span of 16 plus years, so to die at
14 might be considered young.
 
Pet rodents, I don't know of any off hand that live as long as ferrets,
and I am fairly certain pet rats are prone to tumors as well.
 
So, long and short of it, yes ferrets tend to have a lot of potential
medical problems from cardiomyopathy, to lympoma, adrenal and isulinoma
to name a few.  Not sure why, but to hear about 5-7 year old ferrets with
some kind of medical issue is not uncommon, to hear about a lot of 2-3
years old ill is not common.  They do get sick too, but averages I think
are more skewed towards the older ferrets.  Could some of this be
genetic?  OR diet, or lighting and housing, or early spay and neuter?
Of course, but I have heard of similar problems with privately bred,
fed BARF diet, in natural lighting, so some of it may be just some kind
of cosmic ferrety yet unknown factor.  And lets not forget, ECE, ADV,
distemper and other illness our ferrets can get that may shorten their
life span ( well definitely with distemper)
 
I am hoping for better research into the possible causes of some of these
tumors to see if their is anything we can do as their owners.  In the
meantime, I am trying to feed the better ferret foods, plus some of mine
will eat a BARF diet, I try to cage them as little as possible, keep
cages and room in natural lighting as much as possible, provide lots of
dark places for sleeping,etc.  I am doing what I think is best and in a
few years may be able to see if the life spans increase for the ones I
have, most are rescues so it is hard to know past care and ages.  I
figure we can only do what we can, and one of the possible downsides
of owning a pet is that we may have inadvertently shortened their life
spans by keeping them as we do- inside, artificial lights, forced to
 
adhere to our schedules of being awake and sleeping, not getting the
exercise they would in the wild, ie. hunting, etc. fed kibble freely,
neutered/spayed at young ages,kept in groups, caged, etc,etc.  Of course,
an upside is that I have some ferrets that are active, well groomed,
clean, bright eyed, well fed, have the best bedding in the world and
I am their  slave.
 
Patty
[Posted in FML issue 4131]