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Ferret Fans Want Their Favorite Furry Friends
by By HARRIET WINSLOW
The Washington Post
Domestic ferrets are the Harry Potters of the pet world. Like the popular
book series, the furry, weasel-like mammals are a runaway hit with both kids
and
adults.
With an estimated 6 million in homes across the country, certainly some will
be under the Christmas tree this year. Potential owners should take some
precaution.
Ferret owners are passionate about them: forming clubs, organizing
competitions and fighting for ferrets' rights --- both political and
medical.
Domestic ferrets (Mustela furo) are not rodents. They are intelligent,
lively
mammals --- cousins to weasels and badgers --- that have long, light bodies:
males reach five to six pounds and females about one to three. They are
playful
and love to squirrel away small household items. (Furo means thief). They
are
relatively easy to care for --- they can be trained to use a litter box ---
and
they enjoy human companionship.
But concerns exist about ferrets' suitability as pets, especially in homes
with small children. In July, a 2-month-old boy in Canada was reportedly
attacked in his crib by his mother's ferret; the baby suffered 50 cuts to
each
foot plus several deep gashes around his face and eyes.
While many vets are loath to declare ferrets more dangerous than other pets,
such incidents prompt experts to be cautious about endorsing them as family
pets.
"If asked, my first response would be, 'Do you have babies?' " said Robert
Ridgway, a veterinarian who serves on the board of the D.C. Academy of
Veterinarians. "For somebody with children in cribs, ferrets are a no-no."
Some states --- California and Hawaii among them --- and some cities,
including New York, have laws banning the animals as pets.
Bruce Williams, a veterinary pathologist at the Armed Forces Institute of
Pathology in Washington and a ferret owner, believes ferrets don't deserve a
bad
reputation. "They make excellent pets, they are perfect for apartment
dwellers,"
he said. "They don't need the space that a dog would. But they need people
to
spend time with them."
Still, Williams said, ferrets do not make ideal pets for everybody. "They
are
not for families with children under 6 --- I wouldn't recommend kittens or
puppies to families with children under 6, either --- or if they have them,
they
must be supervised. And plan to devote the same time as you would a dog."
"They are full of life," said Wanda Larkin of the Baltimore Ferret Club.
"They are like having a 2-year-old child with four legs. They are cunning in
a
fun kind of way."
Larkin has three. She keeps hers in cages except during their playtime,
which
lasts two to three hours a day. Although she is retired and not very mobile,
she
said, her ferrets are easy to keep.
Larkin and her husband were shocked in 1989 when they moved from Virginia to
Baltimore County, where they learned that ferrets were considered exotic
animals, rather than domestic animals like dogs or cats. This meant "you
could
own (ferrets) but you couldn't buy or sell them," she said. So Larkin worked
toward getting the animals reclassified as domestic, and also pushed to
change
the way Maryland officials treat ferrets suspected of having rabies.
"It used to be that if you were scratched by a ferret, even if it had a
rabies shot, animal control would seize the ferret" and destroy it to see if
it
had rabies and if the person needed to be immunized against the disease,
Larkin
said. But with a quarantine system now in place throughout Maryland, a
ferret
that has bitten someone is monitored for 10 days in a shelter or at the
owner's
home to ensure that it is disease-free.
With their popularity growing, the demand for veterinarians who specialize
in
ferret health has also increased. Ferrets require annual vaccinations
against
canine distemper and rabies, and should be checked for heartworm and have
their
teeth and stool examined.
As many as 25 percent of ferrets develop tumors on their adrenal glands, a
condition called hyperadrenocorticism, characterized by a loss of body hair,
increased aggression and, in females, an enlarged vulva.
"Every bald ferret is a ferret that you can help," said Williams, who
describes hyperadrenocorticism and many other ferret illnesses and ways to
treat
them on his Web site (www.afip.org/ferrets).
The standard treatment is surgery to remove tumors, he said. But
veterinarian
Charles Weiss, a colleague of Williams' who specializes in ferrets at
Potomac
Animal Hospital in Potomac, Md., has developed a new option that involves
freezing the adrenal tumors instead of removing them. He plans to detail his
findings at two veterinary conferences this January, which he hopes will
encourage other vets to try it.
The standard surgery is technically difficult, especially when the tumor is
on the right side, where it attaches to the vena cava, one of the main
vessels
circulating blood back to the heart. Instead, Weiss freezes the tumor with a
probe, avoiding the danger associated with detaching it from a crucial
artery.
The freezing method, called cryosurgery, also results in less bleeding and a
shorter recovery. "Usually with normal surgery, within five to seven days
they're feeling normal," said Weiss. "But with cryo, it takes only two to
three
days."The standard adrenal-tumor surgery generally runs between $250 to $300
but
could cost up to $1,000, said Weiss.
Copyright 1999Provided by ProQuest
Information and Learning Company.
All rights Reserved.
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