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Myrddin Emrys posted:Yikes. Why not get him fixed / scent gland removed? That will help a lot. I have three ferrets and a small place and our place doesn't smell like ferret in the slightest. I'm still not sure where I stand on descenting. All the ferrets I've had have been descented when I got them, but I don't think I'd get it done if I was to get a kit. Still, I'm not sure it's unethical, it just doesn't seem necessary the way neutering does.
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| # ? Feb 13, 2011 17:52 |
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| # ? May 18, 2013 23:52 |
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Myrddin Emrys posted:Yikes. Why not get him fixed / scent gland removed? That will help a lot. I have three ferrets and a small place and our place doesn't smell like ferret in the slightest. Removing the scent gland is unnecessary surgery. The "poof" of a scent gland is more like a fart, that will dissipate into the air and be gone. If the ferret is intact, that's what causes a lingering ferrety smell. Also fishy food or adrenal disease can cause a lingering ferrety smell, but a frightened/excited poof should not last more than a few minutes.
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| # ? Feb 13, 2011 19:01 |
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CompactFanny posted:Removing the scent gland is unnecessary surgery. The "poof" of a scent gland is more like a fart, that will dissipate into the air and be gone. If the ferret is intact, that's what causes a lingering ferrety smell. Also fishy food or adrenal disease can cause a lingering ferrety smell, but a frightened/excited poof should not last more than a few minutes. Eh, I've always seen the two surgeries done as a package deal around here. At least with Marshall Farms ferrets it seems like a necessity to descent for some reason. But yeah, that's why I put "fixed" in there as well. But what that guy was describing doesn't sound like a "poof" like a fart, he said he sprays him with musk that smells bad.
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| # ? Feb 14, 2011 13:50 |
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What he's talking about is the scent gland puff, it's the only type of spray that ferrets are capable of. It does smell bad, but will not linger in the house forever like the oils on the skin will. And yes, Marshall Farms does alter and descent at the same time. It's unnecessary, invasive, and expensive, and I wouldn't recommend it.
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| # ? Feb 14, 2011 18:58 |
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Yeah its just when he's mega excited and its only a very faint smell, I wouldnt see it as a cause for surgery of any kind! He doesnt smell bad, or often, just enough for me to realise "hmm, there's a ferret here" not enough for anyone else to notice as they come in or anything. His fur and cage smell great, so it's only when wrestling and when he's asleep on my shoulder that its at all noticable. D'awwwww..... he loves my laptop.
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| # ? Feb 14, 2011 20:13 |
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Spraying is one thing, but the stretch and fart when you have one in your arms is something else entirely. "Hey buddy" *picks up ferret* *streeettcch PPBT* "Seriously?"
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| # ? Feb 14, 2011 20:54 |
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If there was a way to remove the fart function from animals, I'd sign all three of mine up.
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| # ? Feb 14, 2011 23:44 |
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My ferrets poop on people. It's funny. The problem is with the people, not the ferrets. They pick the ferrets up when they're scooting their butts back into a corner, despite my warnings, and then they get pooped on. No farts just poops
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| # ? Feb 15, 2011 00:52 |
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Well, everyone's gotta learn to read body language at some point.
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| # ? Feb 16, 2011 03:46 |
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Serella posted:Well, everyone's gotta learn to read body language at some point. One of the girls is used to dogs, I guess, and thought the ferret was trying to "reverse-hump" her shoe. He was scooting his butt back towards her shoe and her reaction was to pick him up and scold him for humping it.
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| # ? Feb 16, 2011 04:12 |
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I have to stop reading craigslist. Now I'm trying to talk myself out of getting another ferret, none of the arguments are working. He comes with a bigger cage so no space issues! I've had three ferrets at one time in the past and it was great! My ferrets love other ferrets!
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| # ? Feb 18, 2011 23:31 |
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He probably comes with fleas and adrenal disease, too. Rabies/distemper vaccinations not included!! Does that help 
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| # ? Feb 19, 2011 00:21 |
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CompactFanny posted:He probably comes with fleas and adrenal disease, too. Rabies/distemper vaccinations not included!! Says he's vaccinated, but I think the possibility of having to go through the same level of worrying about a young ferret developing insulinoma/adrenal really is enough to deter me. I'm still so relieved my two have reached four and five years old without the dreaded C word. I know it's always still a possibility, but they're still enjoying the prime of their life completely healthy, which is really good luck as far as I'm concerned. I don't think I can replicate these results a third time.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2011 21:03 |
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I adopted a group of four ferrets on craigslist a few years back. Through email, the woman told me that they were all four different colors, around 1.5 years old, and had a nice cage. When I got there, the one bedroom apartment they were in also housed a bunny and two small dogs. I took them, just because they seemed like life for them was horrible. She didn't let them out. The apartment stank. The dogs were anxious and untrained. She gave me their birth dates--they were ranging from 4-7 years old, plus they were not vaccinated. A week or two later, every thing I owned had fleas all over it. I emailed her to tell her that her animals probably have fleas, and she was extremely rude to me about it. I really do not suggest ever adopting from craigslist for any living creature unless you really want to get sick, abused animals. On the plus side, my ferrets had a much better life after getting out of that environment.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2011 21:20 |
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car dance posted:I really do not suggest ever adopting from craigslist for any living creature unless you really want to get sick, abused animals. On the plus side, my ferrets had a much better life after getting out of that environment. People express this opinion regularly, but I still disagree. Where I live, there are no ferret rescues. People can give their pets up to the local shelter to find a new home, but honestly the shelters around here are definitely more suited to cat and dog adoption. They have small animals in their shelters, but they are never posted on Petfinder for people to see they are available. Your best option if you need to rehome a small animal is to post a cl ad and be VERY discerning about who you adopt out to. And if you're looking to adopt one, it's not always bad either. They may or may not be vaccinated, but you can be sure that a ferret from a shelter around here won't have been tested for anything particular like ADV. One of my ferrets came from someone who posted him on cl. I went to his house and used my judgment. He could have turned out to be sick down the line, but the kind of things ferrets are predisposed to may not manifest for months or years or ever, so any ferret is a crapshoot as far as long-term health goes. Craigslist is full of losers. A lot of people who post on there are irresponsible pet owners or morons looking for an exotic pet who haven't done the research, but not everyone is. Animals end up being difficult and expensive no matter where you get them from.
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| # ? Feb 20, 2011 23:33 |
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Serella posted:People express this opinion regularly, but I still disagree. Where I live, there are no ferret rescues.
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| # ? Feb 21, 2011 04:13 |
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Myrddin Emrys posted:The ferret rescues in my area (and there are plenty) are all individual efforts that are exactly what car dance described, actually. Just horrible places with animals everywhere, stink on everything, and disease running rampant without a huge amount of isolation and separation (sharing cages, in some cases, due to lack of space). This is horrifying. I still want to work with a ferret rescue or run one myself someday. Not only are general shelters best with cats and dogs, but there are also a good number of breed/type rescues for cats and dogs and so few for ferrets and other small animals.
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| # ? Feb 21, 2011 23:54 |
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Ferrets, for better or for worse, seem to attract the "crazy animal lady" stereotype far more frequently than dogs or cats. That, or non-crazy animal rescue folk are less common when it comes to animals that aren't dogs or cats, one of the two. Pretty much every year there are 2-3 cases of ferret rescues run by a single lady (usually elderly) that has to get bailed out by the community after neighbors complain about the smell and Animal Control comes in to discover a house of horrors. They all start with good intentions, but become overwhelmed because of too many surrenders, not enough local support, etc. Dog/cat rescues certainly don't have it easy, but rescues for other types of animals have it extremely difficult in most areas. (Once, a few years ago, I got involved with a national volunteer service that transported ferrets around the US for rescue purposes. The second job I had involved transporting 5 ferrets from a hoarder in Houston who recently passed away to an even worse hoarder up in Oklahoma. I stopped engaging the "national" ferret community pretty much cold turkey after that.) SUPER HASSLER fucked around with this message at Feb 22, 2011 around 00:22 |
| # ? Feb 22, 2011 00:20 |
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Yeah, the problem is that people don't set concrete limits. You have to work out how many animals your budget, home, and time can support, and then you have to absolutely stop at that amount of animals. "Just one more" is really the trouble with hoarders. There is always going to be one more animal, but you can't save them all. It's not your fault if you don't.
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| # ? Feb 22, 2011 04:03 |
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I'm afraid I might be looking at the dreaded "A" word for the first time... I noticed today that Awesome's tail hair, on the bottom, is very thin. Now, he's never had a REALLY robust tail, not like my other ferrets (he's a different color/type than they are). On the bottom of his tail, though, there's been some loss and you can start to see a bit of "rat tail" showing through. I'm really hoping it's just crazy ferret antics or something where maybe the hair ripped off or something... He's the wild one in the bunch and is CONSTANTLY squeezing into places he shouldn't be able to fit, so that's what I'm hoping. He's 3-4 years old, and showing no other signs of adrenal (yet). He's still hyperactive. He's not losing weight, but he's always had a super-hyperactive metabolism and is pretty thin. He's always been pretty thin, though. He's eating and pooping normally from what I can tell, and seems generally unperturbed so far. I hope to get him to the vet soon, unfortunately exotic vets around here are pretty sparse and I might not have time to get him in for a few weeks.
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| # ? Feb 26, 2011 22:28 |
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Ask your vet about a melatonin or deslorelin implant (or both!). Deslorelin is a New Thing for ferrets, it's original intent was to do with horses and estrus cycles, and some vets are still wary of it, but my vet has been using them for about a year with STELLAR results! We had a ferret come in and on the "Colors/Markings" section of her profile I put a big question mark. She was nekkid as a jaybird. Not 3 weeks after getting a double whammy of des/melatonin, she had ALL her hair and zero adrenal symptoms. She is between 5 and 6 years old.  Googling Superlorelin or Deslorelin implant ferret gives some good info, but the article I wanted to post is down for maintenance so whatever.
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| # ? Feb 26, 2011 23:36 |
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CompactFanny posted:Ask your vet about a melatonin or deslorelin implant (or both!). Deslorelin is a New Thing for ferrets, it's original intent was to do with horses and estrus cycles, and some vets are still wary of it, but my vet has been using them for about a year with STELLAR results! We had a ferret come in and on the "Colors/Markings" section of her profile I put a big question mark. She was nekkid as a jaybird. Not 3 weeks after getting a double whammy of des/melatonin, she had ALL her hair and zero adrenal symptoms. She is between 5 and 6 years old. Are these preferred to surgery if that's an option? It's possible that he doesn't have adrenal, but the fact that it's even on the table is scary. For the record, the top of his tail looks like it always does (he's always had very thin tail hair for some reason... he's a white ferret), the bottom is where it's starting to thin/fall out/whatever. Pretty much in the center of the tail too. I'm trying to think if there's anything environmental that would cause him to lose some hair on the bottom of his tail. I was hoping it could be from climbing in/out of that small gap in my cupboards... he can get in and out (other ferrets can only go IN), and he gets in there a lot, despite it being really tight fit. Maybe he pinched his tail or something? Bah I'm just trying to cling to hope here, aren't I? 
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 00:08 |
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Sure it's not rat tail?
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 00:29 |
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peengers posted:Sure it's not rat tail? What do you mean?
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 00:44 |
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Did some research into "rat tail". It sounds like that's what he has... you tell me though. His behavior hasn't changed at all. He doesn't seem to have any problems. Still VERY energetic and rascal-y. Still eating just fine etc. The hair on the base of his tail is still the same as it was before (meaning bushy, for him). The hair on the rest of his tail is rat-tail-y though. The base, which I'll be watching like a hawk until I can get him to the vet (he's due for shots anyway) doesn't seem to be affected in the slightest. The weather's also changed here (it's gotten warmer) and it's that time of year, right? Please?
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 03:54 |
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I would watch it and see if it progresses to his flanks or causes thinning elsewhere on his body. I've dealt with two adrenal cases and I've had one case of rat tail on another, the adrenal ones were both solved surgically and the rat tail resolved itself upon seasonal shedding. My dew, for example, started out with major tail thinning and ended up shedding to become a huge fuzzball.
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 04:24 |
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peengers posted:I would watch it and see if it progresses to his flanks or causes thinning elsewhere on his body. I've dealt with two adrenal cases and I've had one case of rat tail on another, the adrenal ones were both solved surgically and the rat tail resolved itself upon seasonal shedding. My dew, for example, started out with major tail thinning and ended up shedding to become a huge fuzzball. That's my plan. So far it's completely his tail, not his flanks at all. His tail actually looks bushy for the first 1/2 an inch or so, the rest is thinning below it. No thinning above. Awesome is 3 or 4, but this is the first full winter we've had him. We got him January of last year...
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 05:12 |
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The implants are considered by a lot of folks as a preventative measure, as they have been shown to slow or stop the growth of adrenal tumors. Even if he hasn't developed any tumors, the implants aren't going to hurt him. Try gently pulling on his fur around his neck or back. If it slides out easily, that is a telltale sign of adrenal, and I'd go to the vet quickly. If not, wait and see. Rat tail is an easy fix; rub his tail down with stridex facial cleanser pads at bedtime. It's essentially ferret butt-acne, but is normally seen in the summertime.
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 15:13 |
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CompactFanny posted:The implants are considered by a lot of folks as a preventative measure, as they have been shown to slow or stop the growth of adrenal tumors. Even if he hasn't developed any tumors, the implants aren't going to hurt him. Try gently pulling on his fur around his neck or back. If it slides out easily, that is a telltale sign of adrenal and I'd go to the vet quickly. If not, wait and see. Hmm, his fur doesn't seem any different. Let him out extra time last night for observation and he was his normal hungry super energetic self, playing and dooking like crazy. I read rat tail can be stress related too? Can't think of why he would be stressed though. We've had several Foster cats recently, maybe so much change was bad for him? Last Foster was here a few weeks ago though.
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 16:10 |
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Looked at Awesome's tail today. He definitely has some small black specks on his tail, especially towards the tip. They're hard to see, and look like... little moles or dirt or something. That said I'm not sure if it's 100% the butt-acne as I don't know what a skin-less ferret tail is supposed to look like. edit: Someone else took a picture of their ferret with rat tail and this is EXACTLY what Awesome's tail looks like (he even looks like Awesome):  Again, that's NOT Awesome, that's someone else's ferret, but very similar look to his tail.
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 20:36 |
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Yeah that is definitely rat tail. I would wait for a shedding to see if things fix themselves. Griffin went from that to a nice foofy tail in one season so I wouldn't worry unless you see thinning on the haunches. In other words stop panicking, it's superficial and the only thing he's missing is a big poof of a tail when he gets excited.
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 22:51 |
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peengers posted:Yeah that is definitely rat tail. I would wait for a shedding to see if things fix themselves. Griffin went from that to a nice foofy tail in one season so I wouldn't worry unless you see thinning on the haunches. Thanks for the reassurance, and please excuse my earlier panicking. No hard feelings?
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 23:34 |
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Hey we all worry, when I saw Griffin's tail I panicked too
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| # ? Feb 27, 2011 23:56 |
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If it's any consequence at this point, Ben (one of the semi-permanent fosters I have right now) did just the same thing over the winter, blackhead-laden tail and all. I was mighty concerned at first, but he gained a full .5lb after the end of it in addition to new tail-hair, so I cannot complain. This is the same ferret that's on anti-cardiomyopathy medication right now, so I am doubly happy that he is a-ok quality of life-wise.
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| # ? Feb 28, 2011 22:30 |
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Alright, this is pretty gross, but I have to ask the ferret people here if this is something I should be worried about. Last night my fat boy was passed out on his back on the floor of the cage as usual, but he seems to have... pissed himself. I don't know if he was just that relaxed in his sleep or what, but he was laying on his back with a little pool of pee on his belly.  Has anyone else seen this, is there something wrong with him or is he just a big gross baby peeing the bed? Edit to add a picture of fat Gary being less gross and more cute: 
CheesePossum fucked around with this message at Mar 15, 2011 around 21:19 |
| # ? Mar 15, 2011 21:08 |
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Incontinence issues (like "dripping") in males is a sign of prostate problems, typical of adrenal disease. Definitely see a vet! While dripping and leaking is a lot better than a blockage, it's still an issue. Hopefully it's nothing, it might be that he peed and then dragged through it and got some left on him or something like that, but it's worth checking out. eta: he is GORGEOUS. 
CompactFanny fucked around with this message at Mar 15, 2011 around 23:50 |
| # ? Mar 15, 2011 23:41 |
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Pink nose
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| # ? Mar 15, 2011 23:51 |
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A cutie dook.
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| # ? Mar 16, 2011 01:34 |
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does anyone know a good ferret boarding house in the london area? i have to go to a wedding which means I cant look after my diesel. Sadface.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2011 11:17 |
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| # ? May 18, 2013 23:52 |
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Ok, so Maggie hasn't been eating much and her poops have been loose/small volume. We took her to the vet on friday, who gave her a run of amoxicillin/carafate and biaxin instead of metronidazole (my request). They also stuck something in her butt to get a stool sample, which she was absolutely pissed about. Yesterday I kept her in the cage all day. She was grinding teeth over food, refusing anything but ferretvite and was lethargic. I added kaopectate to her regime early in the day to help with nausea, no poops and some urine so I also gave water a few times over the course of the day. Yesterday evening, I see a gigantic green poop and a very active Maggie in the cage. This 2-3 inch monster looked like it was covered in plastic, so I dissected it and found: 3 hairties. Dumbass.
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| # ? Mar 27, 2011 11:34 |
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