Hi Everybody..
About ferrets and pregnant women... yes an animal CAN very often tell wh en
a human female has conceived.. I had a huge raccoon pet long ago that , one
day, suddenly refused to play his favorite game with me... pounce and throw
me to the ground and hop on my stomic for face kissys and then have me roll
him like a bowling ball as far across the lawn as I could then start all
over again... that day he just refused to get near me and nothing I could do
would get him to play.. I was sure he was sick or something till my husband
got into range and he gleefully ambushed him and the games were on.. but if
I tried to play too he stopped dead and flatly refused.. I was crushed..
18 days later I had a test done to confirm I was, in fact expecting, and the
puzzle was solved... he could scent the changes caused by the change of
hormones etc. in my body long before I even suspected I was carrying... I
have had three ferrets that also exhibited very restrained play behavior
days and even weeks before I could test to confirm pregnancy.. so its
true.. some really do know and do react to a womans physical changes, even
before we find out they are there.. and my ferrets have consistently been
far more snuggly and affectionate and caring while I carried my babies..
and toward the birth date they, some of them, began to 'help' me prepare the
'nest' for the delivery.. everything from dragging selected fabric items to
a quiet place and 'arangeing them' for the special event.. to several times
a day examining my bed and 'arangeing' the bedding in their idea of the
appropriate manner for the birth... I have had a child at home and the fuzzy
checked on me often while I labored and would hop up to pat my face and give
a kiss or two and several times brought me mouthfuls of her food and left
them next to me.. to be sure I had food to keep my strength up after the
delivery.. she also 'made her introduction, examined the newborn, and
administered my sons first ferret smooch, before his hair was dry from his
delivery... All my children have napped, eaten meals, shared baths, and
toys, and played with ferrets... and skunks and raccoons and squirrels, from
just after birth till full grown and beyond... Once and only once did any
one of my 4 children ever sustain an injury from one of our 'exotic' pets..
my husband missed a front inside claw on one fuzzy while doing the weekly
nail clipping on everyone... for three weeks running. and that nail got so
long that while playing with the hard rubber balls the fuzzy scratched the
hand of my third child during play... the baby didn't even whimper and the
fuzzy washed that scratch and apologized to that baby for over an hour..
and was very distressed over it until it was long since healed... BTW.. my
husband got a much worse and rather deep scratch from that same nail later
that night and was shocked when he saw the length and sharpness of the
'claw' that had grown out to half the length of a darning needle.. The
Ferret was not the offender here... my husband was.. his negligence caused
the scratches... but the fur kid skulked around feeling guilty for weeks..
and would barely play even tho the nail was promptly trimmed back to very
safe length and bluntness like the rest of his nails...
If a ferret is loved and taught to love and s treated gently and taught to
be gentle.. they are no different with an infant than with myself or my
thick skinned and rough handed husband.. I have no doubt there are others
with other histories of their pets with their children... but in our home
and with our pets, both traditional and unusual, our children, from birth to
out-on-their-own... never had a moments fear or a single incident of
aggressive behavior in their relationships with our four children...
the serious flea infestation problem... I have read recently, here on the
fml, of a few of the posters who are really having a terrible time with
serious flea danger to their fuzzys... A few years ago my Mom called me,
sobbing that her tiny toy poodle was near death from being 'bled out' by
flea bites... her groomer had spotted the white gums and other symptoms of
serious blood loss and altho he had tried every grooming apt. to eliminate
every flea he had many customers with the same problem in their dogs and
warn ed my Mom to get her little dog to the vets immediately.. the vet
confirmed the groomers opinion that indeed fleas were killing her treasured
fur child.. she had had the house sprayed, had the dog 'dipped by the
groomer' altho it made her sick from the strong pesticide in the dip.. and
had used fur sprays etc. at home between shampoos... the fleas in the
carpets and outside were incredible thick all over that area and pets were
suffering and some died from the incredible high numbers of fleas breeding
everywhere that year... Vets and groomer and pet stores and the newspapers
were constantly issuing alerts about the flea danger everywhere you looked..
Nobody had a real consistently working control system and the vet told her
to keep on spraying, dipped the very weak little poodle, and told Mom to do
the usual things and pray the tiny fur kid could hang on until the colder
weather arrived in a few months... But he also told her the dog was very
weak and anemic and that the odds were poor that she could survive the
continued bloodletting for even another week. My Mother was desperately
upset and frightened and called me to help her save her beloved little
doggy. What she expected me to do from 100 miles away in the high desert
was a mystery, but she was to upset to think about that. I told her I was
on my way and after a stop at a local store I drove as as as I could to her
home.. The dog was weak and shaky and the house and grounds were just
jumping with fleas.. in spite of the spraying inside and out repeatedly..
these were very tough fleas. I got out what I had bought on the way and
first I dumped some of the cornmeal consistency powder on the dogs fur and
rubbed it until it settled into the fur pretty well [its pretty rough and
grainy, not like fine flea powder].. then sprinkled every carpet and
crevice and crack and dark place and used the broom to work the stuff into
the carpets, everywhere... after that I went outside and dusted the entire
grounds, especially the gardens and near the house itself, including as far
under it as I could reach.. Then we had a cold drink and waited a couple of
hours. I knew it was working well when I walked into the kitchen and the
surface of the floor was nearly covered with dried crunching black tiny
grains of something. right - dead fleas... I checked the dog and the fleas
o her were dead or dying.. so I started vacuuming and after getting the
floors cleared of more dead fleas than I have ever seen in my life, I
brushed the poodles fur fairly clear of the grainy powder, and hundreds of
dead fleas. I used over 15 pounds of the stuff I bought. The product was a
garden insect controller that even showed a dogs picture on the label and
said it was safe to use right on the dogs fur to kill ticks, fleas and
mites.. but it was really for garden pests.. Now maybe what I did was
dumb, and maybe the label was optimistic, and the stuff is really dangerous
to animals and people.. but her precious fur kid was dying and I did what I
knew worked at home and we had never had any adverse reaction nor heard of
one.. and never have since. the product has something that kills bugs..
and some of you may disagree with its use.. but the sprays and dips were
far worse and limited in the amount and frequency you could use them and
they were not working and pets were dying.. so if I was wrong, I was.. her
doggy lived and the flea problem was over for her forever.. as it always
had been for me with our place and pets... The garden product [gotten at a
garden supply place] is Sevin 5%.. NOT ANY OTHER TYPE OR STRENGTH OF
SEVIN.. NOT THE LIQUID ETC... just the 5% powder... I have never known any
human or animal to have any reaction to this stuff.. ever.. and I used it
and so did everyone I knew near our home in farm country with every kind of
stock you can think of. Thats what I used then.. and have used on and
around every ferret I have ever owned.. and not one has ever had a reaction
nor have they had cancer in their lives either... For what its worth..
thats my answer to that kind of infestation problem...
I hope this information can be of help to fuzzy families with flea/tick
problems to deal with.. When in doubt.. TAKE IT IN AND ASK YOUR VET ABOUT
THE LABEL WITH THE DOGS PIC ON IT AND IF HE/SHE THINKS YOU CAN SAFELY USE IT
TO HELP YOUR PETS!!!
The irony is that the darn stuff is incredibly cheap too!
Happy Ferreting..
dayna and the Woozles
"Resident of... Marvelous Menagerie Of Mirthful Mayhem"
dayna frazier 102046,3162 02-Aug-1996 02:55:48 PST
[Posted in FML issue 1650]
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