February 04

Thought I would write some more about the 4 rescues. They are doing so well. Almost 100% toilet trained when they are out, stopped biting, I can handle them really well and they are lovely now. :-) Beano girl always wants attention, climbs on me and explores me. :-) They may get a bit carried away when I’m playing with them and occasionally they’ll nip, like beano girl nipped me on my bare arm one evening but no broken skin or anything. They are a lot calmer, trust me, aren’t frightened at all anymore. The bit of nipping they do is just bad behaviour and will stop soon, the more attention they get, the sooner they’ll stop the last bit of nipping. Pat is in touch at least once a week, the builder had been and started on the roof of the barn that Pat is having converted for the rescues and then he didn’t turn up for a week or more and Pat doesn’t know what’s going on... But I don’t mind having the rescues, I’m so grateful that I won’t be having them forever and that they’ll go to a good home.

Beano boy, one of the rescues, has loads of small black “dots” in his ear, like tiny haematomas. I took him to see my vets and it’s cancer... She said it looks identical to ceruminous/ cerumen gland adenoma that she has seen in cats. Usually it’s benign but can be malignant. I will now ask on the ferret health list whether this cancer is usually benign or malignant in ferrets. Like, for example, skin mast cell tumours are very malignant in cats and dogs (I think) but are benign in ferrets, they don’t spread in ferrets and don’t go into organs. So I’m hoping that this ear cancer won’t kill him. It is quite bad in his ears already. I was so sad, he’s probably 4 or 5 and has spent all this time in a 2ft "cage" and he finally gets a new life- and has cancer? How horrible is that...

Pictures of beano boy's ears can be found here.

But I have noticed that I have become attached to the rescues... I tried my best not to but how can you not fall in love with ferrets when you have them for weeks and months and "work" with them to tame them. We visited Pat this month for the first time and seeing where the rescues are going to go has finally made me realise that I won't be keeping them and that has made me feel a little sad...