Lisa wrote: >I have to admit that once my ferrets go I will not be getting anymore. >But only because I will be responsible and admit I cant pay the vet >bills it takes to keep them dooking. Well, we have been on the FML since its earliest days so have a bit of feel for this. Some do just stop having ferrets, and it seems to most often be due to the 7-8 years life span being too short for them to deal with emotionally, or due to cost. Either of those hit especially hard when people who don't know ferrets well yet get several (or more) in the same age bracket so they have more than one sick at once and dying close together. A number of folks who "stop" wind up getting ferrets later (months, years) when they are more settled. What seems to be more common is that folks who aren't hoarders but really had an unrealistic view of how many ferrets they could care for reduce their numbers, or people do not add more during times that are hard in terms of time or money available so that the households become smaller at times due to natural attrition despite care. Not many people who have had ferrets for over 5 years have huge numbers of them, compared to newbies, and that seems to be even more true after 10 years. The more feel a person gets for what can handled in terms of time or money the more the number of ferrets reflect that knowledge (except for the few who are animal hoarders). If someone has been around for a long time and has many ferrets then the person has either found ways to do so that are fair to the animals (the usual situation) or the people need to break a hoarding compulsion. There is a solution for you. You could have future ferrets be shelter fosters. Many shelters have fostering agreements in which the person caring for the ferret handles day-to-day care while the shelter handles medical care. As you have so well illustrated, it's best for folks to have not more than about 3 for the first 5 years or so; not only best for the people but especially best for the ferrets. Brandy wrote: >Now I am worried. He has recovered so well. He is losing his hair again. >Not the shedding, or black heads on the tail, bit real hair loss, with dry >itchy skin.... Well, first off, are you sure that it was "cancer" (the MOST commonly misused word among ferret people, I think)? MOST adrenal tumors are NOT malignant; they still need treating to not continue to grow but most aren't. What did the pathology on the removed tissue say? The next course of treatment will depend on that. If one of the usual benign neoplasias then you will be looking at surgery for the other side or for stray tissue, or maybe Lupron (though that is not optimal). It adenocarcinoma then it's pretty much the same since they very rarely spread. If lymphoma then the approach is much different: at least Pred and possibly harder hitting chemo approaches. Re: lick, lick, lick chomp: Donna wrote: >It has nothing to do with sweetness, in my opinion, it has alot to do >with how much pain they can cause. Naw, what it really has to do with are people who don't observe animals well enough YET. It simply is NOT something we have here. Just plain don't. Hasn't been for a long time. Now, early on we had it, but over the 20 years we've gotten used to them and more effective (as well as increasingly more gentle in training methods) and we just have NOT had on who does that for so long that Steve and I can't even recall which ferret was the last one who did it here. Over and over again I have heard from expert animal folks that training problems are far, far, far more commonly a problem with the people needing to learn than the animal, and i have to agree. Is it do-able? Sure, we did it, so anyone can. Everyone was new -- first 5 years -- at some point. Then eventually you get to the point where this doesn't happen but can't put your finger on anything specific other than that you and ferrets understand each other better now. [Posted in FML issue 3770]