---start---- Dr Sobel VMD circa 1987 Ferrets Mustela putorius furo Things you probably want to know: what's on the exam? pay attention to ferret nutrition facts - what you should and shouldn't feed ferret reproduction what causes hair loss in a ferret etiological agents especially those underlined or in bold type in handout zoonotic agents what you vaccinate ferrets for. Ferrets, Rabbits and Rodents by Hillyer and someone - good text Family Mustelidae Genus Mustela Spp: vison (mink), putorius nigripes (black footed) puturius furo - stinky thief :) ferrets came here a few hundred years ago with british settlers - for rodent hunting purposes. domesticated since Egyptian times. only CA and HI still make ferret ownership illegal. the AFA provides a good publication on the ferret regulatory issues you might want to know about, and new diseases, etc. ferret anatomy: build suitable for digging and burrowing. small in front, fat in back. can turn heads 180 degrees. large compliant chest, lots of lung, flexible spine, powerful front feet and claws for digging. plantigrade stance. viscera all kind of squished into caudal abdomen. there is a huge fat pad caudally and you still can see the ribs. they carry weight caudally. male ferrets have a J shaped os penis. in a mature animal it's about 4.5 cm or so. sometimes, these animals will hook the end of the bone on the cage and get stuck, so advise the owner of this. can turn head around so some people think they have only one carotid artery. that isn't true. the carotid comes off, though, a little differently than we're used to. there are two. slide: wally and charlotte. a hob and a jill. sometimes hobs are called alters after neutering. males are twice the size of females. they come in a wide range of colors - albino and fitch, sterling silver (white with silver guard hairs, black eyes), black eyed white, sable with dark guard hairs, siamese with brown guard hairs, particolor (spotted), blaze with a white stripe on head. white feet, white bibb - silver mitt with blackish guard hairs, sable mitt with brown guard hairs. physiologic values - lifespam 5-6 yrs in US, 8-10 in UK, temp 100-104, HR 180-250, eyes and ears open about 30-35 days. housing - fancy cages, ferret condos. shelves, boxes, hammocks. they like to burrow and hide so you should provide them with a shelter, nest, etc. like to sleep in clothes drawers. often dig right through carpets or couches. they have musky odor. they are related to skunks. EliminOdor canine product is good for spraying on the ferret and ferret areas, also Ferret Kleen. toys: PVC pipe segments, ferret go round balls, fishing rod type toys. they like to play with other animals. they are very smart, you can train them to roll over on command. ferret toys can be cheap - a paper bag is a great ferret toy. nutrition: several specialty ferrets - Totally Ferret is the premium food, invented by Tom Willard, a nice guy who doesn't have a good attitude about veterinarians. Marshall Farms premium ferret diet is also good - but has a fish base so smells fishy - this has no fat sprayed on it. Cat food doesn't have as much fat in it. Dog food is not appropriate at all - not enough fat at all. ferrets have no cecum, not good at digesting fiber. abx ok for ferrets - GI flora not well developed anyway. other ferret products: ensure, cat food (iams), etc - these can be used to feed ferrets - hill's A/d, high quality canned cat chow mixed half and half with Ensure or something, strained, and fed via ng tube... Jill ferrets are seasonally polyestrus, coming into heat about march, out about August. Hobs have testicles enter scrotum about December, allowing time for spermatogenesis and stuff. slide: mom is a champagne or light cinammon, babies are light grey slide: mom is dark sable and her babies are grey slide: onset of estrus in female starts with enlarged, turgid vulva. estrus in mink, starts around march with no outward signs, btw. in nonestrus female ferret vulva is tiny. ferrets are induced ovulators, stay in heat 120-180 days if not bred - dangerous - will get aplastic anemia from estrogen gestation 42 days. litters 1-18 kits, 8 is average. ferret can have more kits than nipples. not so with mink. if jill doesn't get pregnant, she'll have a pseudopregnancy that also lasts 42 days, will pick something to be a baby and pester it. after 42 days will reenter estrus in about 2 wks. slide: male kit - note umbilicus with cord remnant...caudal to that are prepuce/sheath slide: female kit - anogenital distance much smaller. note color and size of babies - newborn about 8 grams, 1 wk 18 grams, four weeks 136 grams and starts to show markings. most habits are biting, napping (18 hrs/day), problem solving. to examine a ferret, nutrical is your friend. how to clip toenails - put nutrical on her stomach while you clip toenails with ferret lying on back in your lap. IM injections - not much muscle mass - OK to use epaxial muscle, but it's small - easier to use quadriceps Blood collection - extend head and neck - jugular runs from base of ear to thoracic inlet, more lateral than you might expect. another thing to do is wrap ferret up like a burrito, scruff it, have one person hold like this, while other person directs needle into jugular vein. if ferret isn't quiet, hold tube of nutrical up over head for it to nibble at. PE - scruff to keep still after you observe normal gait...make sure to explain to owner what you are doing and why otherwise owner will get upset. vaccination of ferrets: IMRAB 3 is the approved product for vaccinating ferrets, and must be used annually. if ferret bites someone, you have to submit the brain for testing. so why bother vaccinating? well, the answer is they didn't have enough data to discuss shedding of the virus. ferret wasn't "legally protected." but now, they've studied this - gave ferrets seven different variants of rabies virus and examined shedding times. not many shed virus in saliva. those that did were clinically ill prior to onset of viral shedding. so now, most states agree that a 10 day quarantine is ok, treat ferret more like cat or dog. but sometimes in some states you have to kill the ferret. the AVMA proposal suggests that ferrets should be handled via quarantine. canine distemper - must vaccinate for this but do NOT use ferret origin vaccine! use chick embryo origin vaccine. FerVac-D is USDA approved for use in this species. can start at 8-12 weeks, give 3 vax 2-3 weeks apart, complete the program when they are young. if they don't get all three they can get the disease. then boost yearly. when doing routine PE when ferret is older, when you see it yearly, you might want to get minimum database as well - look at CBC, chem, glucose, creat, BUN if you can get enough blood. note that ferret PCV is 50-65% ferrets get fleas, and it is ok to use advantage or frontline for their weight category - not approved, but several reports exist and it seems ok. ferrets also get otodectes cyanotis ear mites but mostly are asymptomatic. tx ivermectin injections, b/c drop of tresaderm is too big to fit down their ear and their ears are so sensitive they shake stuff out anyway. on p 7 of handout - viral dz under derm section - chin rash is caused by canine distemper virus in ferrets, very characteristic. neoplasms - benign cutaneous hemangiomas - tiny, red clusters. sebaceous adenocarcinoma - reddish, ecchymotic looking area, not raised. tend to recur after excision. raised bumps - flesh colored, pink or red - mast cell tumors - common, usually resected w/o recurrence or other problems. note how nice and furry ferrets usually are. note how bald this other ferret is over the caudal part of the body note how bald this other ferret is over the entire body common finding in ferret adrenal disease is alopecia, symmetrical, usually starts at tail but not always. sometimes ferret shows hair loss on tail that comes and goes - that's not usually adrenal dz, with which hairloss is generally progressive. swollen vulva in spayed female is another sign of adrenal disease. also gets very thin while remaining active and playful. bloodwork will look normal however, ultrasound can show adrenal masses. adrenal/androgen panel is the best diagnostic tool: you look at her baseline cortisol, and estradiol, androgens, etc. sex hormones were all really high. usually left adrenal is affected, most often. this one had a small spot on it so they removed it - had a tumor. right adrenal was normal in shape and size so left it in. 3 mos later - getting worse! uh oh! another panel showed estrogen still very high, other values still very high. right adrenal could have become involved or was already involved. removed that other adrenal. a couple of weeks after adrenal surgery they usually have some crisis - you have to watch carefully. this ferret was given saline to drink but instead drank water from xmas tree bowl and dog bowl. so saline didn't help her and she came in dehydrated and comatose with K+/Na+ abnormalities and severe dehydration. offered nutritional support, dexamethasone intraosseously. she revived. they started giving her flusomethingcortisone. about 2 weeks later she started growing hair back, vulva getting smaller, 4 wks out has fur. had a 4th birthday party at which her tail was still bald...by 6 yrs was a furry butterball. you can use DOCP too in bilateral adrenalectomized ferrets. sam - had hairloss. also had orange waxy coat that smelled bad. secretions b/w shoulders, neck, tail - this was skin infection,. after tx w/abx and baths, hair grew back. GI disease - salivary mucocoeles can occur male ferret was missing x 2 wks, was found stuck in someone's garage and then began "vomiting" but was really regurgitating - had megaesophagus. unfortunately this happens especially when a ferret becomes malnourished - "escape malnutrition" and isn't associated with a good prognosis - usually they get aspiration pneumonia, cisapride not much help. helicobacter musteli gastritis - ulcers and erosions occur, see vomiting, melena. caused by h.musteli with lateral and polar flagellum. not a big zoonosis. humans can get ferrets sick with h.pylori though. dx helicobacter usually presumptive, b/c biopsy procedure very time consuming and expensive. just tx - amoxicillin and bismuth and metronidazole. foreign body - another thing you have to consider - ferrets like to eat toys, also eat a lot of hair during shedding season. usually surgical situation. slide - 2-6 wk old baby with yellow diarrhea on butt - rotavirus. high morbidity, low mortality. there is an IFA test for this but not commercial yet. proliferative bowel disease - causative agent is Lawsonia intracellularis in handout is info on how to ddx ferret GI disease. tx also in handout ----end----