Jan 10 2009
Meet Howie and Snowflake
Howie is in the hammock and Snowflake is asleep in the sack.
Howie and Snowflake are a set of buddies who had been purchased at Petco, returned for biting, and purchased again. They lived with that owner for about 4 years, but then the people had to move and couldn’t take the ferrets. It’s unfortunate, since they’re both nippy little things but their owner loved them.
Snowflake
Snowflake has awful teeth and sneezing fits. The vet has pulled a number of them, and this last one does seem to have helped cut down on the sneezing fits. We’re hoping that once we solve her health problems, she’ll stop biting people. She’s actually gotten a lot better than she used to be, so some of her nipping might have been due to pain.
Howie
Howie is nippy, too, but he’s never bitten quite as hard as Snowflake. He has bad teeth, too, and had some teeth pulled as well. He’s playful and happy, but tends to get nippy when he’s really excited or frightened. We’ve noticed that he hasn’t been very nippy lately, so I think he’s feeling pretty comfortable here.
Howie
I can’t stress too much how important it is to keep your ferret’s teeth clean. They will be healthier all-around and might even live longer. Just like in people, when the teeth become infected, bacteria gets into the bloodstream and can cause serious heart, kidney, liver and intestinal issues. All you need to do is brush their teeth daily. It only takes about 30 seconds and that’s sufficient to keep the tartar from building up.
Snowflake
My vet has said he thinks some of the IBD issues we’ve been having might have started with bad teeth.We’re hoping to get Snowflake healthy, as Howie seems to be in good condition, but it’s hard to find someone who would be interested in taking older, nippy ferrets. Poor things. Once again, they’re most likely going to live their entire lives here in the shelter, sharing attention with all the other ferrets and getting out to play when possible. It’s not such a bad life for the ferrets who end up adopted, since it’s just temporary, but for the ones who stay here forever, it’s rather sad.
