Hello Ferret Friends, We've gotten a lot of heartwarming letters from all of you expressing your concern for us regarding the deaths of our ferrets Trixie and Koosh. There have been way too many emails for us to be able to respond to all of them. As Mary pointed out in the last newsletter, our difficulties have sidetracked the direction of the newsletter (since we tend to write about what is going on with us at the moment). Although we do intend to get back to some of the more commonly talked about topics, I'd like to take this issue to talk about something that is rarely discussed -- the high cost of ferret medical care (especially when you have a lot of ferrets). This is not the fun part of ferrets, but it needs to be discussed just the same. - Eric
In this newsletter:Why we aren't getting another ferret right now.How many ferrets do people own? Multiple ferret households!Ferret medical care expenses. Conclusion.
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A lot of people have written to ask us when we will be getting more ferrets. It certainly is strange for us to have only one ferret -- we haven't had only one ferret since August of 1993 when we brought home Ralph to keep our first ferret, Sabrina, company. Since then our number of ferrets grew -- peaking at nine ferrets running around the house at one time. I can still remember tucking them in at night and counting noses to make sure they were each safely in their cage. I would count them off by age: Sabrina, Ralph, Marshmallow, Knuks, Trixie, Bosco, Balthazar, Cauliflower, Koosh, Gabby. Yes, I know that that's ten. Even though Ralph died long before we got Gabby, I still counted his name when going through the roster. The trip from nine ferrets down to one has been a difficult one. There hasn't been a year in which we didn't deal with all of the following: - A ferret being so ill that they required 'round-the-clock feeding, medicines they hate the taste of, and Sub-Q fluids -- often for weeks at a time such that leaving the house was impossible except for short trips.
- Multiple cage setups so that we could monitor how much a ferret was eating and pooping.
- A 2AM race to an emergency vet.
- Expensive ferret surgery and huge vet bills.
- Bringing a ferret to be cremated (we don't have our own place, so we get them cremated rather than burying them).
- And worst of all: The sad feeling of losing a friend.
Gabby was the youngest of all the ferrets and she grew up with all the older ferrets around her. She is definitely more ferret-oriented than people-oriented. Although she likes people, she basically just likes to walk on them, get treats, and move on. She doesn't really enjoy playing with people or being petted. We've been doing our best to spoil her as we can. Our current living situation is such that the ferret cage is in our main room, but ferrets can only play safely in our bedroom. I think that Gabby's current cage stress is that when she is alone in the cage she thinks that the other ferrets are out playing in the bedroom and we've forgotten her. So she makes a lot of noise biting on the cage whenever she is put in it. As just one ferret, it is easier to leave her running free in the bedroom most of the time. The room has proven to be quite safe (for her alone) and it helps keep her happier. I cannot see us getting another ferret at this time. Though Gabby would probably appreciate it, it would not be a very responsible thing to do. For one thing, our bedroom is safe for Gabby, but is really not an ideal environment for ferrets in general. I don't think we could add another ferret while we are living where we are. More importantly: The surgeries for Koosh and Trixie in December along with all of the follow-up care, emergency vet visits, medicine, etc. have racked up a several thousand dollar medical expense. Since we are no longer able to publish Modern Ferret magazine we don't have a real income, which makes these veterinary expenses very difficult. That is not the kind of situation to bring another ferret into. Most important: Losing a ferret just plain hurts. Trixie loved to be held and I used to lie on my back in bed with her sleeping on my belly while watching TV. She was that kind of ferret. And Koosh was a big teddy bear. Though he was still extremely energetic, he loved to be held and we could see that in a few years he would become a big (over 3 pounds) hairy belly-warmer too. We miss them. For many people the death of a pet is traumatic. Although the rest of this newsletter deals mainly with financial issues, the emotional issues should not be taken lightly. Although having a fleet of ferrets running around is a lot of fun when you get down on the floor and play with them, the odds are good that you will outlive each of them -- and after a few die that can really start to feel like an emotional battering ram hitting you again and again and again. I know that I am not alone in this. The responses from the last few newsletters have been overwhelming. These are the problems faced by ferret owners everywhere around the world. Email and the web have a way of allowing people all over the planet to share a common bond.
This is a really big question. In our years of publishing Modern Ferret magazine we've met a lot of enthusiastic ferret owners. To us it seemed that the majority of them were multiple ferret owners. It certainly seemed reasonable to us to own multiple ferrets -- it is so fun watching them all run around together and they always have someone to curl up with. Later I'll talk about some actual survey results, but first: How many ferrets is the right number? Too few? Too many? It turns out that the answer is much like driving on the highway: You're going the right speed, the guy in front of you is going too darned slow, and there's some maniac who's passing you! For me three to ten is all about the same effort to care for up until you add a ferret that doesn't get along with any of your other ferrets. Once you have a ferret that can't be integrated into your group of ferrets, you wind up needing separate cages, separate playtimes, etc. That can be very difficult and stressful for both the people and the ferrets. There seems to be no way to predict this -- for some reason some ferrets just don't like each other and can't get along (what an unfortunate people-like trait for them to have!). At some number you have to start treating them too impersonally. This number varies by the person, but it is the sign that you have too many ferrets. For me (based on how many ferrets we've owned), I think the number would be around ten. Please note that we were home all day back when we had that many ferrets and we were busy working on our Modern Ferret magazine -- so it was easy to devote a lot of time to playing with our ferrets. Your number may vary based on how much time you have available for ferrets. For our nine ferrets, we got so much better at tasks like cleaning ears and clipping nails and giving baths that we were able to take care of all nine in almost as little time as it used to take us to care for our first ferret, Sabrina, all by herself. Tasks like cleaning a few extra litter boxes or filling a few extra water bottles really don't take a lot of time. Lying on the floor and having a bunch of ferrets hopping on you at once is a lot of fun and lets you interact with all of them. Our problem and limiting factor on our number of ferrets came from Cauliflower not getting along with any of the other ferrets except Koosh. This meant separate cages and separate playtimes for two different ferret groups. It was difficult. There was no way to predict beforehand that Cauliflower would not like any of our other ferrets. But what kind of numbers of ferrets do other people have? When you look at the signup page for this newsletter, you'll see that we ask this question and have the numbers broken down into ranges. So far, we've had 4579 people fill out the answer to this question. 646 surprisingly filled out that they have no ferrets right now. I suppose we have a lot of readers who are either pre-educating themselves or who are former ferret owners who are just reading this to keep in touch with ferrets. That means there were 3933 responses from current ferret owners. They break down as follows: | Number of ferrets: | Number of responses: | % of responses: | | 1 | 1808 | 46% | | 2 or 3 | 1483 | 38% | | 4, 5, or 6 | 398 | 10% | | 7, 8, or 9 | 116 | 3% | | 10 through 19 | 84 | 2% | | 20 or more | 44 | 1% | | Total | 3933 | 100% |
I am surprised at how many people have only one ferret. I never would have guessed that. I am also surprised at how rapid the drop off is towards larger numbers of ferrets. However, it still does show that a lot of ferret owners have multiple ferrets. Some rough math with this: Approximations made: - 2 or 3 ferrets counted as 2.5
- 4, 5, or 6 ferrets counted as 5
- 7, 8, or 9 ferrets counted as 8
- 10 through 19 ferrets counted as 15
- 20 or more ferrets counted as 25
So this isn't going to be very accurate, but it's a start for a ballpark figure. | Number of ferrets: | Number of responses: | Total ferrets: | | 1 | 1808 | 1808 | | 2.5 | 1483 | 3708 | | 5 | 398 | 1990 | | 8 | 116 | 928 | | 15 | 84 | 1260 | | 25 | 44 | 1100 | | Total | 3933 | 10794 |
This yields 10794 ferrets in 3933 households, or 2.74 ferrets per ferret household. While I will admit that the numbers are slightly fudged due to the way the numbers were collected (as broad ranges instead of exact numbers) -- I suspect that the end result is that my average number of ferrets is less than the true number (since by my calculation the largest number of ferrets per household is 25 whereas I have met many people with 40 or more ferrets in their home). On the chart below I have listed some references for dogs and cats. I'd summarize it as follows: Typically in the US there are about 1.4 to 1.6 dogs per dog household. Typically in the US there are about 2.1 to 2.4 cats per cat household. This means that people tend to own more ferrets than they would other animals. On top of this, ferrets tend to have shorter life-spans than dogs or cats. This all leads us to one of the most serious problems with ferret ownership, which is in the next section: Ferret medical care expenses. Scroll down and keep reading! Another important thought about having multiple ferrets: Beyond major illnesses, every living creature can get sick once in a while -- this goes for you, your significant other, your children, and your pets. Another thing to think about with multiple ferrets is that the more ferrets you have, the more likely it is at any given time that one of them will be ill. I like to describe it as, "Everyone has the right to get sick once a year." Having more ferrets makes it more likely that on any given day you will be busy caring for a sick ferret. This can interfere with work, school, vacations, family gatherings, etc. Be sure to consider this as you add ferrets. How important are these things to you? How flexible is your work or school schedule? For the most part, ferrets are generally rather healthy. They don't get sick all that often. But when they do get sick, they often require a lot of care and attention: feeding every few hours, medicine twice a day, or other kinds of attention that can turn you into a full-time ferret nurse. |
Other references on the number of pets per household:
I cannot guarantee the accuracy of any of this information -- these are just some web sites that I found. I have provided the links as references. This article states: "Conservative estimates indicate that about 40% of all American households have a dog. And in nearly half of these homes, will be found two or more dogs."
This suggests that in more than half of these homes, there will be only one dog -- as opposed to our results that in more than half of ferret owning homes there are multiple ferrets. http://www.cyberpet.com/cyberdog/articles/lexi/more.htm This survey of 517 Los Angeles households showed the following (followed by the national averages based on the 1998/1999 APPMA study): Average number of dogs per dog owning household:
Los Angeles: 1.48
National Average: 1.41 Average number of cats per cat owning household:
Los Angeles: 1.57
National Average: 2.40 http://www.losangelesalmanac.com/topics/Environment/ev21.htm This is a Veterinary Market Statistics survey to estimate the number of pets based on national percentages in the US. They calculate 1.6 dogs per dog-owning household. They calculate 2.1 cats per cat-owning household. http://www.avma.org/membshp/marketstats/formulas.asp For an outside-the-US view, this is a web site about Australia. From their pet population estimates in 1994: Average number of dogs per dog household in Australia: 1.5 Average number of cats per cat household in Australia: 1.5 http://www.petnet.com.au/openspace/2.0.html |
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The cost of a ferret is not the cost of purchasing it. For us, many of our ferrets were given to us (because we were publishing Modern Ferret magazine, a lot of people wanted to give us ferrets). But for everyone else, it is possible to find ferrets very inexpensively at ferret shelters, etc. Even buying a ferret at a pet store is often only between $100 and $150. That's why it is so easy for people to wind up with many ferrets. Although good brands of ferret food cost more per pound than cat or dog foods, ferrets are small and don't eat all that much. The cost for daily ferret care is quite low -- even for a bunch of ferrets. So what is the major cost for ferrets? Veterinary care. The cost for medical care for ferrets can easily get very high. This is something that a lot of new ferret owners don't really know or expect. Since ferrets (like other creatures) are often generally healthy for their first few years, there is a lot of opportunity for a ferret owner to add several ferrets before they start seeing some of those high medical expenses -- and by then they are already set up for eventually having those same kind of expenses for each of the ferrets they have added. We've usually had very good luck with veterinary care for our ferrets. I have a lot of faith in our vet. (In fact, I really wish he could practice medicine on people too.) Over the years we've had a lot of ferret surgeries. In most cases, the end result was six months to several years of additional high-quality life for the ferret. Even though this is expensive, it feels good to do. This helps make the high vet bills feel worthwhile. This past December, we weren't so lucky. Both Trixie and Koosh went in for surgery. Neither of them did very well. Trixie went in as an old ferret who wasn't doing well. We didn't have high expectations, but we wanted to give her every chance we could. She was losing her hair due to an adrenal problem and she had some other growth inside her that was making her uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the growth was actually an enlarged (diseased and failing) kidney. When it was removed, she no longer had enough kidney function to live well. We spent a while giving her Sub-Q fluids several times a day, but that wasn't enough to keep her going. For Trixie it is doubtful that the surgery shortened her life -- she was heading downhill anyway. But it didn't help her either. Koosh wasn't very old and he was a very energetic, large ferret. He was just beginning to show signs of insulinoma. Although we were able to fully control it by just giving him some chicken baby food (a nice meat-filled high-protein meal) twice a day, insulinoma is best treated surgically as soon as possible (before it gets more serious or causes further complications). We expected that he would still be around for several years and that this would give him the best quality of life. He had some adrenal problem so his remaining adrenal gland was removed (he had had adrenal surgery previously) and he had part of his pancreas removed for the insulinoma. Unfortunately, after the surgery he somehow developed an ulcer that perforated his intestines. His intestines had looked fine when the vet had him open. His symptoms didn't really match what was wrong with him -- mostly they just mimicked insulinoma and a lack of adrenal function. He was examined by an emergency vet as well as our regular vet and another vet -- nobody suspected what his real problem was. Koosh died while under observation at our vet's office. For Koosh, the surgery definitely shortened his life. We really did not expect that to happen. We believe the stress of surgery and being away from home contributed to Koosh's intestinal ulcer. Now we are just left with the medical expenses of several thousand dollars. This does not feel good. From feedback responses we've gotten from the last few newsletters, I know that we aren't the only people who feel that they just can't afford the high vet bills that come with having ferrets. I still feel that it is important to provide your ferret or ferrets with every possible chance. However, I can see where people get discouraged after having an experience like the one we've just had. I can also see where people can easily reach a point where they can't afford medical care for their ferrets and/or doubt that it is worth the expense if the ferret is going to die anyway. There is no right answer to this, but my concern over this issue is why this newsletter is so long. |
What makes ferrets so expensive? There are many factors that combine to make ferrets expensive as far as medical care is concerned: 1. People have multiple ferrets. From my rough numbers in the section above, ferret owners just seem to have more ferrets than other pet owners have other pets. The more animals you have, the more likely you are to have one of them need medical care. 2. Ferret are still relatively uncommon as pets Many vets consider ferrets to be an "exotic" -- and thus charge more for ferret care than they would for doing a similar treatment for a cat or a dog. Many vets also don't have as much experience in treating ferrets as they have in treating cats or dogs, which can also lead to higher charges. 3. Ferrets are small animals Ferrets can go downhill rapidly when they are sick. They don't have a lot of bodyweight and they have a fast metabolism, thus they need frequent supportive care (feedings and fluids) when they are ill or recovering from surgery. One of the most problematic aspects of being small is that ferrets can become dehydrated very quickly. This can make a ferret feel awful and stop eating and drinking, which snowballs into low blood sugar and further dehydration. Dehydration taxes the kidneys ... and so on. All this means that ferrets tend to need longer stays at the vet hospital than larger animals do. Each day and each round of fluids adds to the cost of surgery and recovery. 4. Many ferret problems require surgery or other expensive procedures Especially in the US (although this is common amongst pet lovers around the world) there is a tendency to go all-out in providing care for pets. With ferrets this can involve all sorts of very expensive procedures. Unfortunately, dramatic measures are not necessarily enough to save a ferret's life. Many ferret problems are treated best with surgery as opposed to medication. This tends to make the treatment more expensive. Ferrets seem to have a lot of tumors (benign) and cancer problems as they get older -- and the best treatment for these problems is surgical removal of the affected area. 5. Ferrets are not as long-lived as dogs or cats One of the biggest factors in health-care costs is that ferrets just aren't built to live as long as cats or dogs. That's just the way nature is. While it is difficult to get good figures to work with, a good quick ballpark number would be to say that a 6 year old ferret is old, whereas with a dog you would use a number more like 9 years and a cat would be old at 12. This means that old-age medical problems crop up a lot sooner in a ferret. Our first ferret, Sabrina, lived to be 8.5 years old. Our other ferrets have all lived between 4 and 7 years. Though we tend to say that ferrets live from 6 to 10 years, it is more to remind people that a ferret is a potential 10-year commitment rather than that they commonly live that long. 6. Ferret medicine is not as advanced as other animals A lot more is known about dogs and cats, so there are often better treatment options available for them. Because there are more dogs and cats in the world, there is more of a financial incentive -- and a larger pool of test subjects -- to create new and better treatments for existing illnesses. Thus, there are fairly frequent advances in medical care for cats and dogs. During the years we published Modern Ferret magazine, we saw a lot of advances in ferret medicine and nutrition -- but there is still a long way to go before ferrets are caught up with where dogs and cats are now (and by then even better treatments will be available for dogs and cats). Even routine vaccinations for ferrets can become expensive. For some reason, ferrets just seem to be more likely to have vaccine reactions than dogs or cats. The reactions are also more likely to become a big problem, again because of the size of a ferret as compared with the size of dogs or cats. Right now there are two brands of canine distemper vaccines licensed for use in ferrets (for most of the time we've had ferrets there was only one brand of canine distemper vaccine) and there is only one brand of rabies vaccine licensed for use in ferrets. When we had several ferrets, nearly every year we would have at least one serious reaction to the canine distemper vaccine. We are firm believers in the importance of vaccination, especially since our ferrets used to spend so much time out in public while we were promoting Modern Ferret magazine. So while the cost of the actual vaccines was reasonable, the problem was the expensive care required to nurse a ferret back to health after it had a vaccine reaction. These costs could be enormous for serious reactions (less for less serious reactions). No one can say for sure how much damage is caused by a vaccine reaction -- thus a vaccine reaction may be setting up your ferret for ill health (more medical problems) in the future. This type of thing does not happen so frequently in dogs or cats. If a vaccine develops a reputation for causing problems, there are many different brands that are competing with it that will gladly displace it from the market. |
It is the combination of all of the above factors that winds up making ferret medical care so expensive compared to care for dogs or cats. Comparing the typical ferret owner to the typical dog owner, the ferret owner has almost twice as many ferrets and the ferrets live about half as long as dogs. With just that, the typical ferret owner is likely to have almost four times the veterinary expenses of a typical dog owner. On top of that, the vet expenses for ferrets tend to be higher than those for dogs -- making ferrets even more expensive. While the typical cat owner has almost as many cats as the typical ferret owner, cats tend to live a lot longer -- usually this means that they are not ill and are thus not generating as many medical bills. The only way to cope with these expenses is to plan for them beforehand. Having a good trusting relationship with your vet helps too. Make sure that you always have money on hand in case you need to race to an emergency vet. Murphy's Law as it applies to ferrets is that you will always have your worst medical problems on Sunday night between midnight and 3 AM... when it is snowing. Many people who bring ferrets into their lives fail to consider these eventual expenses. They may end up with more ferrets than they can afford to care for -- or worse, some people dump old, ill ferrets off at ferret shelters, which are in no better position to foot the bill for surgeries. It's very easy to fall in love with a bunch of furry little faces -- but we have a responsibility to think through the numbers of ferrets we can truly afford to have in our lives at any one time. Some people have savings accounts strictly for ferret medical expenses. Some people get veterinary insurance; however, many companies do not cover ferrets or have dollar caps on surgical expenses or on the number of ferrets they will cover. Whatever you choose to do, the most important thing is planning ahead for medical expenses. They will happen and they will be high. I have often wondered what the life-span of cats really is and how much it has improved during my lifetime. When I was a kid, I don't think that other kids got kittens and thought that they would grow up and that same cat would still be with them when they got married, had kids, etc. I think that cats back then were expected to live around 8 to 10 years. Cat medicine and cat nutrition have improved a lot since then. Now it is common for cats to live 15 to 20 years or more (I think the record is around 34 years). So now planning for the lifetime of a cat is much more important -- you could easily get a kitten when you are 8 years old and still have that cat when you are 33 and have your own 8 year old kid. Before one gets too carried away with this and starts hoping for 16 year old ferrets, I think the situation needs to be analyzed further. My personal rough take on this from looking at other animals is: - People were probably built to live 30 to 40 years and we've extended the typical life-span to 60 to 80 years.
- Cats were probably built to live 8 to 10 years and we've extended the typical life-span to 16 to 20 years.
The problem with ferrets is that I suspect that they were only built to live 3 to 4 years. So even with a lot of medical advancement, my guess would be that 6 to 8 years is about the best that can be done for them. There may not be a lot of room for improvement. There may be advances that make medical care less expensive and/or less invasive, but I'm not expecting much increased longevity. |
The typical life-span of the animal is a really important concept. If instead of getting a ferret back in 1992, Mary and I had gotten a dog, the odds are that that dog would still be alive with us today. That dog might not even have ever faced a major medical crisis yet. Even if we had then added nine more dogs, the odds are that we would have had few to zero major medical problems. The odds are that all of the dogs would still be alive today. If over that 12-year period, one of the dogs had died after some medical dilemma and another of the dogs had required major surgery, we still would have spent around $20,000 to $30,000 less on medical care. That is a major difference. And a lot less emotional ache as well. (I couldn't even accurately state how much we've spent on veterinary care over the past few years -- the number is so high I just try to blot it out. I know that a lot of ferret owners have this same problem.) We just picked up Trixie from the place that does pet cremation today. The workers there know us because they see us once or twice a year -- every year. If we had gotten dogs back in 1992, they might not even have met us yet. Not that we would trade having had all of our ferrets in our lives! They have all been wonderful companions. This is just a hypothetical to point out the dramatic difference between the cost of ferrets and the cost of dogs. |
What are the average life-spans of dogs and cats?
This is a tough question. I found it very difficult to find any links that were true references -- most of them seemed to just be statements that sounded reasonable. Even so, there is a lot of agreement amongst them, so they are probably close enough to the truth for our purposes. This page from petinfo4u.com seems to have similar information to most of the other sites -- all combined on one page. They site says: - larger dogs live around 10-12 years
- small dogs live around 12-15 years
- some dogs have lived to be 20 years old
- cats live around 12-20 years
- rabbits live around 10-12 years
- ferrets live around 6-8 years
http://www.petinfo4u.com/communication.htm#Human Years This site uses the phrase "biological expectancy" which they define as the age to which a dog could live barring accident. It says that the biological expectancy is 14 years for small dogs and 12 years for large breeds. http://www.my-dog.info/getting-a-dog/your-dogs-lifespan.asp This site is about a particular dog breed - the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. It talks about the life-spans of various dog breeds. It says that Irish Wolfhounds average 6 to 7 years, Toy Poodles average 12 to 15 years, and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels average 10 to 12 years. http://www.rhiannon-cavaliers.com/adogslifespan.htm The National Humane Education Society web site says an indoor cat's average lifespan is 14 to 20 years. http://www.nhes.org/articles.asp?article_id=197§ion_id=90 This site starts out quoting a poll by Tufts University. I don't know if that's where all the numbers come from, but it claims that a healthy cat's lifespan is generally 12 to 15 years. http://www.angelfire.com/on2/debbysdigest/CatFacts.html |
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The scariest thing about only having one ferret is that if anything happened to her (hopefully not soon!) -- we'd then be zero ferret owners. We've had ferrets in our lives since 1992 -- I just can't imagine life without a ferret around. However, the difference between now and a few years ago is that a few years ago we were publishing Modern Ferret magazine. We had a lot of ferrety things going on and it was very reasonable to consider large vet bills as just another cost of our ongoing business. The magazine was expensive. Renting a place to live that allowed ferrets was expensive. It was no big deal to have expensive vet care bills as well. Now things are much different. We no longer have the financial resources necessary to publish a magazine like Modern Ferret. (To see how much time, effort, and money we put into Modern Ferret, you can order a set of our back issues here.) Thus we don't have the resources to handle the potential medical expenses of several ferrets. I'm not sure what will happen in the future as far as ferrets go. We'd really have to strike it rich in order to be able to afford having several ferrets again. As I've said, it's not the cost of the ferret that's a problem -- it's the long-term cost of the medical care for the ferret. It's also not that each ferret isn't worth the expense to treat their illnesses -- it's a matter of what we can afford. Obviously, if we still had a bunch of ferrets, we would find a way to pay for their medical expenses, whatever those expenses were. But from our standpoint today, adding ferrets is not financially feasible. I think it's important for every ferret owner to take a realistic stock of their situation and keep the number of ferrets they have within what they can afford so that each ferret can get the care he or she deserves. I don't mean this newsletter to scare people off of ferrets or to imply that they are not a good pet. I love ferrets and all of my ferrets have been just wonderful furry friends. But having a bunch of ferrets can be very expensive, and that should be considered before you go out and get a bunch of ferrets. That's it for this issue (it's gone rather long). Next issue will feature some grooming tips and information about how Gabby is doing. See you then! -- Eric You can provide feedback about this issue at: http://ferretnews.com/feedback.html Stay tuned for more. You can always get updates by reading Mary's blog (a blog is an online journal). She keeps it sporadically and it usually runs to the more personal stuff. But you might like it. It's at http://www.modernferretblog.com/mary
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