Hi everyone,
 
I just wanted to comment on the topic of early neutering spaying ferrets.
I honestly believe that anytime you spay/neuter a ferret at such an early
age as the ferret mills do you are setting up the ferret to have many
health problems.  The Washington Ferret Rescue and shelter has been
involved for the past two years with Dr. Cathy Johnson Delaney.  The
study has compared ferret kits from the large Ferret Mill with kits
that were born here at my house and also ferrets from another shelter
that also were not spayed/or neutered to ferrets that were spayed and
neutered.  The results are showing without a doubt that it is causing
some major problems which will effect the ferrets in the future and may
cause them to develop adrenal problems and other problems in the future.
 
I have both Ferret mill ferrets and also ferrets that came from breeders
and so far only the ferrets that came from Marshalls or Triple Farm
Ferrets have developed adrenal problems.  The girls here that have
adrenal tumors are both 5 years old and my girls that are 7 years old
and came from a breeder are still completely health with no signs of any
problems so far.  My ferrets range in ages from 1 year old to 9 years
old.  I have about an even number of both Ferret mill Ferrets and ferrets
that came from a breeder.  My Snuggles that is nine years old and came
from a breeder does have Insulinoma and has had if for 4 years now.
Snuggles is on pred and Bob's Chicken Gravy.
 
In my opinion you wouldn't spay/neuter a human as a baby why in the world
would you spay/neuter an animal at such an early age.
 
Yesterday, I just happened to get a call from one of the managers at a
Petco in my area and we sure had a long talk about Petco's ferrets ending
up at the shelters.  I told her it was time for the Petco's to start
taking on some of the responsibility of all the ferrets that are turned
over to the shelters that originally came from the Petco in our areas.
She made a comment that people can return ferrets back to Petco and that
Petco will take the responsibility of finding new homes for them.  I
wonder how many Petco Customers know that!  Maybe if the shelters took
a dozen or so "unadoptable" Petco ferrets back to them, this would open
their eyes to what the shelters are going thorough and would at least
slow down on the sale of ferrets at their stores.  I am hoping this
manager will address this with her higher ups, she is well aware of what
is going on at the shelters here in Washington.
 
Well, its time to pack up the "Marshall Farm Kits and the my breeder
Kits, jills, hobs and head to the shelter for the last blood draw in this
Adrenal study.  Within the next couple months all the breeder kits that
are now a year old, and the intact ferrets will be spayed and neutered.
No more stinky hobs!
 
I have found that my ferrets that that are not descented do not smell
much different then the ferrets that I have rescued that came from the
ferret mills and were descented.  The only time you can tell the
difference is when the undescented ferrets get upset with each other and
let off a poof, which really doesn't happen that often!  My only worry
is ferrets may become impacted if they are not descented.  I honestly
believe if you have a very good "Ferret Vet" that knows what she/he is
doing it would be better to have them descented.  I think this time when
the kits get spayed/neutered I will have Dr. Delaney descent them.  She
is an expert at descenting!  So I feel like this time I can trust her to
do it.
 
Charleen and the Wa Tails
[Posted in FML issue 4228]