Yarm Ferret Rescue September 2007
by Sue Lloyd
It has been a busy year for us, a slow winter with regards re-homing ferrets but the situation improved during the spring. Now however, we're heaving with kits.
Some of the ferrets re-homed have been to replace much loved pets that have been killed by dogs and I would view dogs with ferrets with great caution, especially if you wander around game fairs and shows with your ferret(s) running around on a lead, as even dogs who are on leads can still lunge for your ferret. Also, if your ferret escapes and next door has a dog please ask them to look out for your ferret so that hopefully they can find it before their dog does.
I have a lot of rescued kits and adults, some of whom have survived on very strange diets, needing homes. One jill who belonged to a friend, whilst being quite well, lost all seven of her kits due to not having any milk. The vet advised fresh meat to be fed daily.
Over the summer as an area co-ordinator I have received several phone calls from owners needing foster mothers for orphaned kits and from jills in milk looking to take on orphaned kits. Perhaps the NFWS could keep a register of nationwide fostering needs ie. foster jills available and orphaned kits in need? Could this go on the website? As a non-computer person I would be happy to keep a paper register but cannot take any more in at the moment as I at saturation point.
One jill I took in this summer was found in a pub car park frantically searching for her kits although her milk had dried up. No one in the small surrounding village had any idea of to where she had come from; she has since been re-homed. I have a strong feeling that she may have been dumped, but what happened to the her kits?
Remember Alice's skin problem (May's Newsletter, No 78)? Well whilst she now has three lines of furless skin on her back which looks like scar tissue, the vet discovered the problem was flea allergy, so now we know!