The top preventable health problems in ferrets

June 8, 2011

In this week’s syndicated newspaper feature, Pet Connection advisory board member and blogger Dr. Laurie Hess, weighs in on preventive veterinary care for ferrets. Dr. Hess cares for birds and other exotic pets, such as rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, smaller rodents and reptiles at the Veterinary Center for Birds & Exotics in Bedford Hills, N.Y., and previously served as head of the Avian & Exotic Pet Service at the renowned Animal Medical Center in New York City.,

“I’ve never had to bring him to the vet before, because he’s never been sick …”

At the animal hospital, I hear this same declaration every day from pet owners about their sick pets, regardless of the species they own. And here’s the catch-22: If these folks had brought in their pets before they were sick, instead of waiting until after they showed signs of illness, their pets might not have become ill in the first place.

This is especially true of ferrets, those masked mischief-makers who make wonderful companions but have become so popular as pets that their domestication and inbreeding have made them susceptible to a handful of common — often preventable — illnesses. Among the top preventable health problems in ferrets are:

Foreign object ingestion: Just as human children put everything in their mouths, so do young ferrets. Shoes, parts of the couch, toys — you name it; they’ll eat it. And then they develop intestinal obstructions, which are marked by diarrhea, bloating and sometimes vomiting. This requires lifesaving intestinal surgery to resolve. So if you ferret-proof your crazy critter’s environment by removing all small objects from the floor and never leaving him out of his cage unsupervised, you can avoid a costly trip to the emergency room.Hairball ingestion: Just as young ferrets eat foreign objects, middle- to older-age ferrets ingest hair, and can develop intestinal obstructions due to hairballs. These furry friends often groom excessively, consuming large amounts of hair that stick together with mucus in their saliva to form cigar-shaped mats that plug up their narrow intestines, leading to diarrhea, lack of appetite, lethargy and occasional vomiting. Sometimes a laxative treatment will help these hairballs pass, but more often, complicated intestinal surgery is required to unplug these tiny creatures. With brushing and a couple of oral doses of a petroleum-based cat hairball laxative each week, you can avoid this situation.

Read more about preventing ferret health problems here.

Who is smarter, the city bird or the country bird? Dr. Marty Becker and Mikkel Becker have this to say:

City-dwelling birds have a larger brain relative to their size than non-city dwelling birds. As the BBC notes, scientists suggest that larger brains in birds such as crows, tits, nuthatches and wrens make them more adaptable to the changeable conditions of city living.

All this and more in the complete feature, here!

View the original article here