Does anyone know about ferrets??

Supertrooper

Supertrooper

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A friend of mine thinks her female may be having a phantom pregnancy. Vets round her don't seem to know anything about them.

Female was mated but hasn't produced any young but has acted like she was pregnant. She is ok but friend is concerned it may be harmful xx
 
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Angelz

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Mine are hobs, so sorry no help BUT there is a helpfull ferret fourum I used years ago, think its talk ferrets or something like that.
 
ThePinkPony

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Jills do suffer phantom pregnancies quite alot if left unspayed. None of mine ever really had a problem as we put them into kit asap but one of the albys had a phantom before her fisrt litter at about 18 months old.

Have her mated again, keep her with the hob until she takes. hopefully that should help.
 
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BonneMaman

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Why on earth have you got an animal as a pet you know nothing about? Female Ferretts will continually come into season if they are not mated, making them lose condition and get pretty sick. You need to get them spayed or mated and I do not believe for a second that any decent vet did not know this fact.

Buy yourself a book off Amazon and read it quickly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-F...0781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310312686&sr=8-1
 
ThePinkPony

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BonneMaman said:
Why on earth have you got an animal as a pet you know nothing about? Female Ferretts will continually come into season if they are not mated, making them lose condition and get pretty sick. You need to get them spayed or mated and I do not believe for a second that any decent vet did not know this fact.

Buy yourself a book off Amazon and read it quickly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-F...0781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310312686&sr=8-1
Click to expand...

Id suggest you read the OP again, properly this time.
 
Supertrooper

Supertrooper

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Yes pls read my post again properley!!!! It is not my ferret but a friends who I am asking on behalf of. The female is kept with a male, therefore it can be mated. She does know that they can become ill and die if they arn't mated. So please don't jump down my neck!!
 
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BonneMaman

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OK - let me rephrase for this "friend" of yours - why does she have an animal that she cannot take care of properly and which "vet" said they know nothing about ferrets?
 
ThePinkPony

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BonneMaman said:
OK - let me rephrase for this "friend" of yours - why does she have an animal that she cannot take care of properly and which "vet" said they know nothing about ferrets?
Click to expand...

Lol, some people will do anything to avoid apologising.

OP We never had our ferrets to the vet, we had a local terrierman who knew everything there was to know about them as we had a similar thing to your mate, our vet didnt like ferrets because they bite (ours didnt) and wouldnt handle them.

Let her get over her phantom and keep her in with the hob. Phantoms arent the end of the world, and you may find that its not a phantom but actually shes just back in season.
 
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BonneMaman

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Not really sure what I have got to apologise for - it is very easy to say "my friend" is asking the question - vaguely translated as I know I have a pet that I know nothing about but will blame a phantom friend.

Also, "the vet knows nothing" is also vaguely translated into - cannot be bothered to take it to the vet so say they know nothing! Not liking an animal does not mean they know nothing about them. Now if it was a duckbilled platapuss and you took it to the local small animal vet then yes I might expect him to have to consult a book but a ferret - erm no....

Buy a book and read - actually, don't buy a book - read the internet! Even better, don't get an animal until you know how to keep it! Oh and don't try to breed unwanted pets indescriminately to give to others who know nothing about them!

If it was a pony she was talking about you would all be jumping on her.

Apology - erm - sorry for being an animal lover!
 
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joeanne

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Ferrets are induced ovulators, so if they are not brought out of season by mating them, then they can become seriously poorly and die. A phantom normally sorts itself out, but by keeping her with the hob, should she come into season again he can remedy the problem!
 
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joeanne

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BonneMaman said:
Now if it was a duckbilled platapuss and you took it to the local small animal vet then yes I might expect him to have to consult a book but a ferret - erm no....
Click to expand...

Oh to all be as perfect as you BM!!
FWIW.....MANY vets particularly those from inner city areas may not have met a ferret before and have a much broader knowledge of cats/dogs/rabbits and the like. Ferrets are not a pet thats often even taken to a vet as they rarely prove problematic.
And until recently many people (even vets) encouraged the wrong diet to be fed because none of them knew exactly what they OUGHT to be eating!
 
Supertrooper

Supertrooper

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How can you not like angel delight????!!!! Yum yum, especially the butterscotch flavour.

Thankyou all (except a certain person!!) you've put her mind at rest. I'm a small animal vet nurse and I don't know about phantom pregnancies in ferrets and to be honest none of our vets would. We probably see one ferret a year and would refer a ferret normally xx
 
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giveachance

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B M I took my ferret to the vet for a check up when the weather was very cold as he didn't look great, who is a good country vet but quite young, and he said that it was the first ferret he had ever treated, and admitted he didn't really know what he was looking for.
 
CorvusCorax

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When my friend shot my ferret (Don't. Ask) I rang the emergency number, raced to the vets and found the vet leaning against a wall, reading a book to try and find out something about ferrets.

He told me he would 'treat him like a small cat'.
This was a small rural practice mostly used to treating large animals.
 
Feathered

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Yep that's been mostly my experience with my ferrets and vets too... Not much use unfortunately, not their fault really, they're not that common. One vet even termed one of ours as "an exotic animal" once!
 
Spyda

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The ferret should be fine :)

I take in and home stray ferrets and most of the strays found are entire males which I have neutered to decrease their smell and allow them to live companionably with each other. Any entire jills I have (although I've none at the moment, actually) I take to another local 'rescue' man who keeps a couple of vasectomised males. When the vasectomised male mates with the in-season jill he brings her out of season by putting her into a phantom pregnancy. She'll swell just as if pregnant for real and even pull the fur from her tummy (to allow suckling) but when the due date comes she'll reverted to normal.

I assume your friend wants to breed from her ferret? If not, she'll have to have her speyed, given the 'Jill jab' regularly or be taken to vasectomised hob once or twice a year. http://www.ferret-land.co.uk/JILLS-IN-SEASON--Anemia-.html
 
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Miney

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Hi. I have 3 Jill’s 2 are sisters 8 years old both been spayed, and a 3 year old that has 5 babies 1 week old she was 12 weeks old when she joined the sisters so they more or less brought her up,
My question is, she keeps trying to drag the sisters into her hutch I take it she wants to show them her babies my worrie is will the sisters hurt the babies, I have a large inclouser with 3 rabbits hutches in it, I have her shut in one of them with her babies, but when I am in there I let her out to run round with the sisters. Would be great full for any advice on this matter,
 
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