Boy, did we learn a lot! This conference is held every two years and Julie and I hope to convince them to come to Kansas City in 2004. Drs. Bruce Williams, Karen Purcell, and M.A. Stevenson, were there discussing all of the things we worry about most. (Actually, some of the news is good.) Bob Church, our very own zoo-archeologist from Columbia, MO., was there discussing ferret mental health and natural history. We heard Jean Carley describe legalization efforts in California. And we paid a fun visit to the 24 Carat Ferret Shelter run by CJ Jones. CJ has many ferret refugees from California and a cute little ferret that was confiscated from the infamous Mike Tyson

Veterinary News:

Dr. Williams, whose life has been devoted to ferret veterinary research, notes again that ferrets "are cancer factories". They most frequently develop adrenal tumors and insulinomas (pancreatic tumors that secrete insulin and cause episodic dangerously low blood sugar levels). They are also vulnerable to assorted lymphomas, a kind of blood stream cancer, some of which may be related to viral infections and most of which are pretty lethal despite our best efforts. Ferrets can also get bone cancers, skin cancers, liver cancers, and brain cancers.

Fortunately, ferrets are good surgical candidates and Dr. Williams contines to recommend, "When in doubt operate, and don't come out empty handed. Ferrets have a lot or organs that they don't really need", he says, "including enlarged spleens." Although adrenal tumor removal and partial pancratectomies (for insulinomas) are common surgeries for ferrets at the shelter, we are also having particularly enlarged spleens removed as our budget allows.

Enlarged spleens may indicate that a ferret has had multiple bouts of infection, such as the helicobacter that causes stomach ulcers. The spleen may become larger and smaller as infections come and go. In any case, an enlarged spleen is very fragile and if it is palpated vigorously it may break and cause the ferret to bleed to death. So don't go poking around on your ferret's stomach.

Dr. Karen Purcell, author of a best selling veterinary text about ferrets, discussed the importance of diet. The wrong kind of food, such as grocery store cat foods, can increase a preference for sugar (and possibly an early development of pancreatic tumors). Too much sugar can also increase the incidence of diabetes and intestinal blockages. Ferrets are meat eaters and they do not digest plant or dairy foods at all. (She notes the increased corn content in IAMS reformulations.) Foods high in plant proteins are related to development of urinary stones and blockages.

Dr. Purcell also told us some interesting news about our genetic relationship to ferrets. Gene pairs have been found in people that match those of ferret adrenal, insulinoma, and basil cell tumors.

Dr. M. A. Stevenson gave us the latest information about Aleutian Disease (ADV), a Parvo virus that is found in Mink, and now in ferrets. This is a very infectious disease that is always fatal. It came to our ferrets as a gift from mink ranchers who, when the sale of fur coats declined, began cross breeding their mink with domestic ferrets for sale as pets.

It is feared that ADV will spread through the shelters and breeder ferretries as quickly as did ECE, or green slime, a virus a few years ago. The difference is that this disease always kills, whereas we have learned to manage ECE and few ferrets now die from it. A reliable test for ADV, the CIEP test, is expensive. For this reason the shelter has begun testing a few foundlings with a less expensive saliva test. Should one of our ferrets test positive we may have to discontinue taking in and adopting our ferrets. In short, this disease could shut the shelter down.