My Ferrets

[Autumnlicious]

Am I evil in finding the cancerous tendencies of ferrets to be interesting? A cursory glance through the incidents of "ferrets" and "cancer" on Google would suggest the chances to developing cancer in ferrets to be rather high.

I wonder if some aspect of their functioning contributes to such on a repeatable basis.

The thought does occur to me that keeping animals alive longer than they survive in the wild would reveal the unstable, long term consequences of their particular construction.

Were that the case, that living longer for a pet provokes a damaging, painful disease, what would your protocols for handling them be, for their end-of-life?

What would the 'right thing to do' be?

[reverendjeremiah]

Am I evil in finding the cancerous tendencies of ferrets to be interesting? A cursory glance through the incidents of "ferrets" and "cancer" on Google would suggest the chances to developing cancer in ferrets to be rather high.

I wonder if some aspect of their functioning contributes to such on a repeatable basis.

The thought does occur to me that keeping animals alive longer than they survive in the wild would reveal the unstable, long term consequences of their particular construction.

Were that the case, that living longer for a pet provokes a damaging, painful disease, what would your protocols for handling them be, for their end-of-life?

What would the 'right thing to do' be?

You are correct, especially in Marshalls ferrets. i think it has to do with lots of inbreeding of their stock.

The right thing to do would be to show your children that we all must do what we can to keep fighting for life, even if it is our pets.

[Rhizomorph13]

Your ferrets are cute Rev. I have a couple myself and they are the coolest pets except for the stink. They look up at you and so obviously want to play with you; that is why I bought them. I love my ferrets.

Here they are a couple years ago: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a...=3&theater

[KichigaiNeko]

Sort of like miniature otters eh Rhizo??

[Rhizomorph13]

I would love to have an Otter, but yeah Ferrets are like them, only, ya know, smelly.

[reverendjeremiah]

They have a cream rinse for ferrets that neutralize the smell for 2 weeks

[Rhizomorph13]

Hmm, interesting. I've used a melon smelling stuff called Ferret sheen.

[downbeatplumb]

All small rodents seem to be prone to cancer, my wife keeps hamsters and I have a friend who recently lost a rat to the big C.

[KichigaiNeko]

Sorry DBP but I don't think Ferrets (et al) are rodents.

I AM of the opinion that these creatures are very short lived and because they are pets their life expectancy is lengthened so as to include these diseases like cancer

[Minimalist]

I had to go with "I can't stand ferrets."

Fuzzy beavers make me horny.