help needed quickly

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Allrounder; Pardon me for saying, mate, but ~ without being there to actually inspect the overall situation ~ I'm actually a bit inclined to wonder if you haven't simply got yourself a little bit wound up, perhaps from reading so many tragic tales on here of late?

 

Let me put it to ye this way: Reading this forum, we seem to have lost between half and a dozen ferrets in the last month. Yes? And how many hundreds of ferrets must the combined forces of our readership have amongst then right now? That's a whole lot of perfectly happy, healthy stinkers.

 

I thus Hope I might not be too wide of the mark in surmising you, perhaps, found your jill having a bit of a lazy day and then found that bit of high meat and got a bit jumpy? Might that be possible, in retrospect?

 

Either way, the bottom line is that a bit of manky meat, found tucked away in the nest box as it usually would be, doesn't exactly wreck the rhicto scale of things ferrety, mate. Fact of life is that ferrets will occasionally bury some morsel in such a way. And, as you found, we will tend to discover it in pretty short order.

 

What they might do about it, if left to their own devices, I really don't know. I've always found such caches and removed them on knee jerk - as you have done. But I've definately never had a ferret go down with anything as a result of discovering such a treasure. Nor have any of my ferrety mates. And I'm talking about over a period of what must ammount to hundreds of years of ferret keeping, between so many of us.

 

Let me put it at its most simple: Ferrets are mustalids. The Ultimate Carnivore. The ferrets we keep are probably just a shaven chromasone away from the ones roaming the wilds. They will thus all act pretty much alike. But; Who reaches into a wild polecats nest chamber and removes what ever she may have stashed away there - for what ever reason they do that?

 

So, may we not extrapolate that polecats, stoats, mink and domestic ferrets most likely All bury bits of meat in their holes? And flies will come. Left to it, there'll be maggots. But if they're all at it and not dropping off like flies in the wild, why should our ferrets? They're not poof mustalids after all!

 

No. Give your captive charges exactly what the sleek, glossy, wild buggers crave: Fresh air. Space. Clear water to drink and whole things with faces to eat. Let them have access to materials to build a warm nest and an undisturbed place to build it; And why should they turn out any differant from the wild ones?

 

Anyway, I hope and trust ~ if you're adhering to the above basics in all else of your husbandry? - your ferret will be fine. Only do bear in mind, of course: Ferrets are the most contradictory little creatures. Down the centuries they've put up with the most terrible abuses and survived even the most squalid conditions. Today we (once again?) know better - or should. Yet, for all our loving care and best maintaned Courts, any ferret may take it into it's mind to keel over. No apparrent reason and no explaining it. It does happen. Best we can do is hope it doesn't. And follow the most basic rules, as set out above, to ensure nothing we could prevent doese.

 

Best of luck, and do let us know how she gets on

[allrounder 47]

cheers shitter but i was a bit concerned because the exact same thing happend to my last ferret wich went really thin and could hardly walk so i had to depose of him humanaly so i thought the best thing to do was ask you lads and i dont think i was just simply getting myself wound up as alot of ferrets have died over this last month i was just bieng safe rather than sorry and dont wont her to go like my last one did ill let you no how shes doing anyway, cheers

Edited September 23, 2006 by allrounder

[The Ferret Tamer 0]

Not all vets are crap, with running a ferret rescue centre here in East Yorkshire i work very closely with our chosen vet who i have to say has more than a passing interest in ferrets as a fair few of there staff also keep ferrets.

But i also am involved as the practice are willing to listen and try new ideas i have never been fobbed off with an excuse that seems to cover a multitude of sins.

The vet will regularly do autopsies to try and further their knowledge base at no cost to the rescue.

 

To sum up there are vets out there that are "ferret friendly" they can just be hard to find.

 

FT

[Guest Frank]

Thats what we are trying to say.

Yes, their is vets out their, not many, but a few, that are willing to do everything in their power for the ferret and its health.

But, if you are like me and live in the middle of nowhere and the nrearest vet it 12 odd miles away and a cow doctor, then your fecked.

You are lucky indeed to have a good ferret vet near you that does not cost an arm and a leg aswell.

 

 

Frank.

[bunnyboy 0]

VETS ARE CRAP WITH FERRETS,MAYBE HE DOESN,T HAVE THE £30 CONSULTATION FEE PLUS WHATEVER ELSE THEY LUMP ON FOR MEDICINE ..THERE IS MORE EXPERIENCE ON THIS SITE ABOUT FERRETS THAN ANY VET WOULD EVER KNOW ,,KEEP GIVING HER WATER KEEP THE FLUIDS UP ,AS FOR MILK I WAS ALWAYS TOLD NOT TO GIVE THEM IT IF THEY HAVE BACTERIA PROBLEMS AS DAIRY PRODUCTS HELP THE BACTERIA BREED ..BUT THE CHICKEN SOUP BIT I LIKE ...ALL THE BEST ..

 

I used to live in the north east and even my relatives who are still there would never pay £30 for a vet, I maybe a skinflint when it come to money so I chose my vet wisely and where I am at the moment I have a great vet so no way would I pay him anything like £30.

 

I think it all depends on how you look at your animals and if they are worth taking to see a vet, are they just part of your tools which are discarded at the end of the season, or are they the much needed part of your tools and without which ferreting could not take place?

 

Mind you I have not needed the services of a vet in the past 40 years other than the odd jill jab or for a bad case of fleas, plus my vets wife house sits should i need to go away and am not able to take all 24 animals with me.

[Guest Hawkman]

I don't know about the people on here but my ferrets are working animals and are cared for extrememly well. But i would not think of spending anything more than £30 on all but my vascetamised hob and at £50 it would be the shouvel for him to.

 

By all means if the ferrets are your pets and you have a significant emotional attatchment then thats up to you but don't expect everyone to be the same. I live in the real world were shit happens it does not mean my ferrets are neglected they are allways looked after but be realistic!

 

just my thoughts

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

ferrets ..... in the real world were shit happens ..... be realistic!

 

 

Said it all, mate! 'Put!

[allrounder 47]

well lads it looks like shes gunna make a full recover as she is back to her normal self and thanks for the help aswel

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

[Rainmaker 7]

Good stuff, glad to hear it was a false alarm

 

Sorry, but I think this whole run to the vets culture is bullshit in many cases. I too grew up in a piss poor family that didn't have two pennies to rub together, it never stopped us looking after our animals.

 

Ferrets and lurchers were and usually still are in the realm of the working man (or worse) and fact is in the real world a good part of the time they're used to feed the kids, true live-or-die style. Not pampered in a family with more money than sense, where the guy of the house likes to "play caveman" and still stomp around the countryside in a brand new 4x4 with half a dozen well heeled, "well bred" lurchers terriers and ferrets in the boot, making him think he's part of the riff-raff element of old.

 

Thirty quid? Feck I can feed us and three kids for a week for that, and half the time growing up we didn't have half that a week for six of us! Mam used to spend the week with the equivalent of fifteen quid in her purse, carefully choosing veggies and the odd pack of stewing steak offcuts from the farmers market to stretch out the week for us kids. And that's just the consult fee!

 

If one of the dogs got sick it either recovered or it got helped along its way. Not ideal but they was some tough as boots feckers that stayed the course. We couldn't have afforded fifty plus quid for OUR medical treatment or food, never mind the bloody dogs in most cases, in those days.

 

It's all very well to say "oh but if you cant afford the treatment...", but fact is for millennia now dog has stood by man's side through all the shit and the rain, kept him company and warmed his bed, and survived with the best of them. After a cold hard day at work (or looking for work) and trying to feed the family, nothing quite beats a thumping tail and a lick down the lughole to cheer you up. Not to mention if said work-seeking or food-scrounging didn't bear fruit, that same dog would be lifting coney or better to fill the pot, and taking the scrap ends for his own belly.

 

Ideal? Hell no. But seeing as even in poor families the dog/cat/ferret gets better care than the humans, maybe we should look first at the human welfare before we criticise that of the animals.

 

Just because someone can't pay a jumped up salesman a few thousand percent profit on a five minute verbal opinion and 2p of drugs, doesn't mean they're incapable or shouldn't be allowed to own a companion animal. Did you know that a whole 100ml bottle of antibiotics, for example, costs about two quid? The vet will give your dog some of that (it cost him 2 pence - 100ml for two quid) and charge you a fiver per ml.

 

That's a £498 profit on a £2 bottle of meds. Or, if you like, he gets back 250 times more than he paid for it, or equally you could just say it's a TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND PERCENT INCREASE (profit) In no other area of industry is a company allowed such monopolistic over-charging.

 

Perhaps we should be a bit more critical of the current veterinary setup before we start chewing chunks out of the common decent folk who do the best they can by their animals and expect only the same in return. No wonder vets drive round in brand new cars and live in fancy houses! If they charged a normal mark-up (like a shop for example) we'd ALL be affording the very best in health care.

 

If your valued loved pet/working animal slices its leg open, busts an artery, or is hit by a truck by all means don't walk to the vets... BLOODY RUN TO THE VETS!! Most poor folk would do just that, and go without themselves - as I have done many times myself before.

 

But for something simple, or in the case of botulism (nasty disease I agree with everything DS said) where it's an either/or and not much you can do to change things, sod the vets.

 

My pup (as many will know on here) recently had her eye "popped" by a feral cat Thankfully, having a quite a bit more money now than when I was growing up, having scraped myself a university education and worked as hard as I was able (being phyically disabled), I dashed her to the vets and paid nearly £100 in three days for visual examinations, eye drops (chloramphenicol), and... that was it.

 

All in all she kept her sight, the eye is fine, and I'm £100 down (and therefore so are the mrs and kids). And for what? The vet to say "ooh could go either way this" (I could say that myself!) and give me HUMAN eye drops that the chemist sells over the counter for three bloody quid!!!

 

So what would have been so wrong about me staying at home (no vet), saying to myself "bugger, could go either way this" and nipping over to Boots for a £3 bottle of conjunctivitis eye drops - the same ones the vet supplied for eight quid a go! Had I done that (certainly learnt my lesson for next time), my family would have been £97 a week better off, and the dog would have been just as well cared for.

 

Barring major life threatening injury, an experienced working dog/ferret owner will generally in this day and age know just as much if not MORE than the vet, and have all the medication required at his/her disposal.

 

JMHO.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Rainmaker; I think you just sorted out the men from the boys on that one, mate!

[Kay 3,709]

I cant believe the attitude of some people, if you value your ferret you pay the going rate & instead of posting on here get it to the vets, the only way to make vets ferret friendly is for people to take there ferrets to them in the first place, everything cost a fortune not just the vets bills.

 

Vets charge what they charge , garages charge what they charge its life, idealy i would be a qualified electrition, plummer, vet, mechanic, but as i am not any of them i pay for there services when i need them

 

So do the right thing & see a vet

[allrounder 47]

alrounder where are you from as im from staffs

i live about 5mins away from middlesbrough and ferretlove you take your ferrets to the vets first and pay whatever the costs and pm me wene he has learned something about ferrets :whistle:

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

That had me in f***ing tears!!! That's the spirit!

 

Tell ye what; Why leave it to PM's? We all give our advice and experiance freely here. So, Ferretlove: Having lashed out the overdraft on that white coat and as you so strongly suggest we should all do like wise, I'm figuring there's plenty of come back in it? So, would you now kindly spell out for us all the sum of the occult knowledge of mustela putorus furor, as bestowed upon you by your ferret vet?

 

What has this doyen in a lab coat taught you that none of us have ever picked up through simple lifetimes experiances around ferrets, please? Do share

[Hob&Jill 258]

If your valued loved pet/working animal slices its leg open, busts an artery, or is hit by a truck by all means don't walk to the vets... BLOODY RUN TO THE VETS!! Most poor folk would do just that, and go without themselves - as I have done many times myself before.

 

I dont understand that bit. Not having a go (who would bloody dare with you!!!! lol) Im just curious to what that meens.

 

Josh