ferrets in desert

Question
we just brought our second kit home yesterday after our first had to be euthanize d suddenly at the age of 3 and half cause a tumor had grown on his urethra and blocked it, my first question is this common and how do i spot it because my ferret had no signs till it was too late, and my second question is that in may i will be moving back to Arizona from Colorado and i cant find much info on how to care for ferrets in a hotter area i have known people to have them but not sure if i should do anything special other than try not to let it get hot (which in the desert isn't always possible)

Answer
Hi Chris:

Congratulations on your new ferret and also your planned move to Arizona!! I live in Arizona and have for about 35 years now and it's wonderful here, albeit hot in the summertimes. We do have to plan ahead for our ferrets in case of every kind of emergency imaginable,primarily the heat, of course.

It sounds like your other ferret probably passed away from a tumor on his adrenal gland pressing against his prostate gland, which blocks urine and can even cause the bladder to burst if it's not noticed. Here is a link so you can read about adrenal disease/tumors, which I believe your little one had: http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/med/adrenal.html

I think the best thing you can do to ensure this ferret has a better outcome is to educate yourself on ferrets, things in a normal home environment that are deadly to ferrets, symptoms of illness and/or disease. Usually if a problem is detected early, and your ferret is under the care of a ferret vet (not just any dog and cat vet, one specializing in "exotics" or "ferrets"), your ferret should live at least six to eight years of age, and I've heard of several ferrets who lived to be 10 years old!  The secret to longevity is education on the part of the owner; the right food, plenty of exercise daily, routine vet checkups, and a well-ferretproofed play area.

There is a book called FERRETS FOR DUMMIES by Kim Schilling that every ferret owner should read from cover to cover. If you can't do that, you can read this website:  http://www.ferretcentral.org or www.thechipster.com/fert-man.html .  The sooner you can read and employ what you learn, the better for your new ferret! Three years of age is a very common age for getting adrenal tumors and adrenal tumors are very very common in ferrets; surgery to remove them is a fairly routine procedure for a ferret vet and it completely CURES the disease and the ferret may go on to live to be 10 years of age. Your ferret's life was cut short unnecessarily. I don't want to make you feel bad (I'm sure you already do feel bad and I'm so sorry about that), but I just want to stress the importance of learning so another similar problem doesn't take your new little one's life far before his time.  I'm sure that's why you wrote and I tend to "tell it like it is". My intent is not to cause you further pain.

As far as living in the heat moving to Arizona, I have several 'back-up' plans. PLAN A:  You MUST live in a house that is air conditioned; and that air conditioner MUST be reliable, not falling apart. If it is not in wonderful condition, I would recommend having at least a window air conditioner mounted and ready to go to keep one room cold in case your whole house air conditioner stops working. If I see a big storm coming, I turn the air conditioner down as cool as possible (usually keep it at 75 degrees) so that a short power shortage doesn't become catastrophic) in the house; double check my Blue Ice (the hard plastic ones so the ferret can't bite into it) that I keep in the bottom of the freezer 365 days of the year so I don't have to wonder IF they are in the freezer and ready to use. I get out the travel cage, some ferret food, litter, etc and ready to leave IF power goes out and we have to leave. NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT AT LEAST 5 GALLONS OF WATER PER PERSON/FERRET. You will go thru the water really fast if you don't find air conditioning after leaving your home and you are trying to keep ferrets cool with water and cardboard/hard plastic to fan and keep air moving around them.

PLAN B: is that we have a monsoon storm and the electricity goes out and there is NO air conditioning anywhere in the city. My personal backup plan includes our car, which we keep filled with gasoline - enough to drive to Phoenix or San Diego if necessary (big blackout).

**IMPORTANT: The other thing we always need to remember is that fans do NOT cool. Fans move air; cooling happens when the air moves over a wet surface. So, if you need to keep a ferret cool, you need to keep the ferret wet and a fan on him. A fan along is useless.  You can hang wet towels around his cage for the fan to blow on and this will drop the temperature about 10 degrees in the cage. You must be present to keep the towels wet just about hourly because the heat will dry them quickly, even with the humidity up.

I have a "Plan C":  I have an item that looks like a answering machine, but is not. It's called "Sensaphone". It plugs into and A/C outlet in the house - as close to the cage as possible. It must also plug into a telephone line.  I set temperature limits and my cell phone number (other options are available too, but I don't use them) so that just in case I am not at home and the air conditioner goes off or for ANY reason the temperature hits 80 degrees in the house near the ferret cage, the unit calls my cell phone and a recorded message tells me that the temperature has exceeded the "safe" set temperature.  The unit also allows me to call my home phone number at any time and dial in a code number and it will give me a complete report of what his going on at my house, including temperature (and other things that you can set also). These are available occasionally on eBay, or you can still find the Sensaphone company on the internet, but it's not an item you'll find at Walmart.

Hope that helps. BE PREPARED is my motto.  In the desert you absolutely MUST be prepared, then be prepared for Plan B not to work too. That way you don't get caught with no way out. We have whole house air conditioning, a one room portable air conditioning unit, the Sensaphone, two vehicles with air conditioning AND the knowledge that if all else fails I can just keep the ferret WET and keep air moving around him and he will live (I have actually had to do this one for about an hour once, that's why we got the portable room air conditioner).  WATER & MOVING AIR = COOL AIR / SURFACE

May I be the first to welcome you to Arizona? I hope you like it as well as we do! The sunshine is great; DO plan though.  Let me know what city you will be relocating to and I'll be happy to help you find a ferret vet. If you're going to Phoenix, you have a GREAT selection in ferret vets!  I'm in Yuma and we have a couple here too. I think most smaller cities drive to Phoenix because the vets there are SO good (BEWARE of a Dr. Funk in Phoenix (last I knew anyway) who touts himself as a ferret specialist and I know of three ferrets he has taken to routine surgeries and they did not live through the surgeries...FYI :-)

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers