STOP PRESS 2007

 

 

This page is for small snippets of information to let you know what's going on at the rescue.

25/03/07

If you read the devastating news about Honey in story's, you may be wondering about her brother Polo, well he is as mad as ever and as fit as a fiddle, we will all have to keep our fingers crossed, that he stays that way.

We will be building some more new cages at the rescue in April, some will be eight feet long to take larger groups of old ferrets, it is a sad truth that more people are giving up on there old ferrets and although we do try to foster out the old ferrets, the chances are they will stay with us for the rest of there lives, the old cages will be given to someone who does some ferret rescue so they won't go to waste.

If you have looked at the show date's page, you can see we are booked up for the whole of May, so if you need us don't ring on the landline at the weekend's untill late on show days, we still have some dates to be confirmed, once they are, I will put them on the show date's page, as always you are more then welcome to come to any of the shows, just give Shirley a call on 01708 783072 for times and directions.

27/03/07

Peter picked up three Hobs and a Jill from Essex wildlife center today, one had to go to the vets with a swollen neck, it could be an infected saliva gland or Lymphoma, we hope its the gland for his sake, he was put on antibiotics, so that was another four cages used they have to go in cages on there own untill they have been neutered for a while, then we can put them in together.

04/04/07

With the shows fast approaching the usual, this time of year conversation came up, of how can we make it easier to get everything we need to shows, we use an estate car and a 4X4 but we could do with more room, a nice long wheel base, mini bus would be good but we can't afford one, we could get a second hand trailer but we have no place to keep it, no off road parking and no room to leave it in the street overnight, if we could find somewhere it would have to be close, for some of the shows we already get up a 5am, to get ready, without spending time picking up a trailer, I think one of us will have to win some money on the lottery, fat chance.

05/04/07

We had the local vet call us on 01/04/07 Sunday morning they had operated on a Jill for an obstruction which they removed but had no success in getting her to eat, we did there open day in 2004 and 2005 and they knew of the recipe we use for sick ferrets, I told the vet our web address and that the recipe was on there, but its a pain to make and this Jill needed it now, so I immediately dropped off 20 cubes of frozen chicken gravy, fresh raw turkey breast, which is very soft and ferretone, I spoke to the vets on Tuesday the 3rd, she is eating the chicken gravy and they were thinking of sending her home, we don't know the ferret but we hope she makes a full recovery.

09/04/07

Anyone that has visited one of our shows in the last 6 years may remember Oscar who came in as a cruelty case and was very nasty who turned into an angel and because of his temperament convinced lots of people to get ferrets, then he got to go on TV. Well he started to lose the fur on his tail in 2006 but now he has started to lose it on his back and is very itchy which would indicate that he has an Adrenal tumor, we will do everything we can to make 6 year old Oscar better which could mean an expensive operation to remove the Adrenal gland, untill then sadly he will not be joining us at the shows in 2007.

19/04/07

Well we said we were going to start building some more new cages in April and here is the proof, out with the old and in with the new, four, four foots top and bottom and two eight foots in the middle, check out more pictures in an update on The Rescue page, we are going to move on to the roof and replace the last bit of old roof over the outside freezer and put a light over it, I must say we have had some nice weather to work in though, I remember when we first started rebuilding the rescue center it was after the show season at the end of 2005 and it was cold and wet, actually I think it was the rain leaking though the old roof that made us start the rebuilding work.

 

21/04/07

I was talking to the vet who did an operation on the ferret with the obstruction where we supplied chicken gravy, and it has made a very good recovery, I had called him regarding Oscar who has an Adrenal tumor, we are very lucky to have one of the most experienced vets on Adrenal tumor surgery local to us.

26/04/07

A lady phoned us after she read our page on old ferrets and was keen to make a difference in an old ferrets life, she already had one older ferret, so came to visit the rescue centre and decided to take home 5 year old Hob and Jill, Rosy and Jim, she gave them something very special, a new home and I would like to wish them all, the best of luck.

05/05/07

Peter picked up another 8 ferrets from Essex wildlife center today they all seem nice and OK to handle, we will get some pictures on the adoptions page next week.

10/05/07

We went to Knebworth country show on the 6th and 7th and was asked to take home two ferrets on each day to re-home that's four more for the rescue, we are close to full, we have booked in more ferrets for castration, if we could get some boys in together it would help.

Eddie who helps at the shows and was at Knebworth was saying how nice the web site was, I keep the web site going, I said the best bit for me is how it connected with the lady that re-homed Rosie and Jim the older ferrets, I then mentioned how sorry I was for the three 9 year old Albino's with no hope of going anywhere, but would die at the rescue, Eddie said he had a spare cage and decided to give them a good home, and they will get to run around he's garden, nice one Ed.

31/05/07

Peter and Shirley's ferrets Henry and Naz became parents today with six babies, you may be thinking we shouldn't breed, being a rescue centre, I bred last year for the first time after having ferrets for eight years so its not something we do all the time, and when old, deformed or nasty ferrets come in who do you think keeps them, we do, so its nice to breed ferrets for ourselves sometimes.

03/06/07

Eddie said the three old Albinos are getting on fine, they did find the ramp on the two tier cage difficult to walk up and the old Hob threatened to full of the side, so they did some remodeling, made the ramp at a shallow angle and put on a guard rail.

07/06/07

We have some really sad news, 11 year old Daphne who was featured on the old ferrets page had to be put to sleep today, we will miss her lots but wouldn't we all like our ferrets to live as long, when you take home a very old ferret you are setting yourself up for the upset of losing them sooner rather then later, but it was so worthwhile.

12/06/07

Does anyone know of a company in our area which is Romford where we can get lots of shredded paper, we use it for the ferret beds, we did get just enough from a large accountant's but the staff seeing a good idea, started taking it home for there own small pets, leaving us desperate so if you do know where we could get some, please e-mail us with contact details, thanks.

E-mail

14/06/07

Shirley had a call from the BBC, they are broadcasting a show about a Dogs home and other animal rescues, it's been advertised and will be on in a few weeks time, they had seen our web site and asked if they could send a film crew to see Shirley and the ferrets on the 22/06/07, so if all goes well we could see Ferret Friends on BBC1.

15/06/07

Oscar saw vet William Lewis today and is booked in for his Adrenal operation on the 21/06/07, so there will be no TV appearance for Oscar this time, we hope it is a success and he gets his fur back and the itching stops.

 

 

 

 

 

21/06/07

Oscar had his operation today and it was a left hand Adrenal tumor which should have been the easier side but the operation took one hour, Adrenal ferrets are usually very thin, but I had kept his weight up with chicken gravy and that made things more difficult he also had a polyps on his pancreas which was removed, the vet said he would like him to stay the night so he will have to wait untill tomorrow to come home

25/06/07

We have been offered space to store a trailer local to me, so we will be looking at a trailer mid week, hopefully we will get it before our next show it will make our life going to shows much easier.

The BBC did not visit the rescue but will come in two weeks time.

01/07/07

Oscar has had his checkup and everything is fine and he is back to his normal self apart from two things, the excessive itching has stop and he has some hair starting to grow on what was a totally hairless tail, although it just looks like black marks on the skin, it is growing, its amazing when you think its only been one week since the operation.

We purchased a trailer which we will pick up next Thursday, and use it for next Sunday's show.

The BBC will be visiting the rescue on Monday the 9th of July 2007.

04/07/07

The BBC have canceled again and will call to reschedule.

12/07/07

Really sad news, the old boy that Eddie took home had to be PTS, I know he only had a home for two months but he enjoyed walking round Ed's garden and two months is better then no months, the two old girls are OK and love there new home, although one is in better condition then the other, I spoke to Ed and he said they had become really attached to Bob, and even though they found it very upsetting to lose him, it would not stop them giving an old ferret a home again, he took Bob home and buried him in the garden, that he came to love.

Better news, Oscar is playing more and has new hair growing on his back, and is getting dark and stubbly, the skin is looking more normal, he also had muscle wastage, but that is returning to normal, (picture above right) its amazing how fast ferrets fill the benefit of having the Adrenal tumour out, considering its only been three weeks since the operation.

Well here it is, the trailer, we used it last weekend for the first time and it made the job of getting everything to the show much easier, rather then trying to fit it into our cars, we will be getting some boards for the sides with Ferret Friends on.

At the last couple of shows we have had some new people helping out who love ferrets and I must say its been great to have them with us at the shows, the more people we have at the shows, makes it more fun and I think that transmits to the public, and makes our tent even more welcoming.

Well the BBC did a disappearing act, they haven't had the common curtsey to call Shirley to say they would not be coming to film at the rescue.

7/09/07

If you are reading this, it means you have found our new web address www.ferretfriendsrescue.info sorry the site was out of action but we had problems with our host who wanted more money for our name this year after we paid for two years in 2006 and you can't talk to them directly, its all got to be done be e-mail, we asked our friend Wayne Fogg of Heath Computers for his help and he offered to host the site for free, nice one Wayne, but we had to change our name, but its good to be back.

10/09/07

Before operation	20 Days after operation	36 Days after operation

More shots of Oscars bum and its getting hairier, his tail is slowly getting some hair, he is much more active playing with us and his ferret friends.

Shirley had someone call her, they had bred a litter of ferrets sold one, the people brought it back because it was ill, she put it on the floor and it just died, and was looking for a reason why, Shirley asked what they had been feeding the babies, wet cat food, well there's the answer its bad enough to feed older ferrets on the stuff but to feed babies on it is disastrous.

I remember nine years ago when we turned up on Shirley's doorstep looking for a ferret that she said that they eat raw chicks, meat and biscuits, the only meat I liked came in packets from the supermarket not with a head and feet but I thought if we wanted a ferret we should feed them what they like, it was disgusting but we got over it, we now use over 10,000 chicks a year. But we still get people take on ferrets then bring them back for boarding, Shirley asks what they are feeding and some say just dry food, I've tried but they won't eat meat, well when they left the rescue they would have been fed on meat so Shirley feeds them on meat and dry when they are on holiday with us and they love to eat meat, especially the chicks, lots of ferrets put on weight with the meat in there diet when they are with us.

A day in the life of eight ferrets

7am eight ferret faces looking out of the cage, its breakfast time 10 chicks and a large handful of fresh turkey breast cut into bits, 5pm playtime its out in the house and they get cat milk (not to much) and sometimes chicken gravy that we make for sick and old ferrets, treats like banana and raisins, and I do mean treats, 10pm playtime over and back to the cage, with 14 chicks and there bowl is filled with two types of ferret food, just like us, ferrets have there likes and dislikes, and its nice to give them choice's.

Animals don't get choices unless we give it to them, they have to eat what we dish up, take a good long look at what you feed your ferrets, are you giving them good choices? do you feed only one type of dry food and nothing else, I like bacon sandwiches, but I would not like to eat just that for the rest of my life.

Four female ferrets came in to the rescue on 17/08/07 because the women's vasectomized Hob had died and she didn't want to get another one, and wouldn't get them neutered, they were in good condition apart from one, she was being attacked by a silver Jill and had stopped eating I said I would take her home and get her to eat, once I got her home and had a good look I did not think she would last to the next day she weighed just 12oz or 340gram's and had given up, I would have to force her to eat the only problem was we were out of chicken gravy that we use for sick ferrets, so I went out and bought two small chickens and made up the recipe and fed her every hour for twelve hours then every two hours between 6am and 11pm after four days of making her eat she was back to eating on her own, the picture above was taken four days after I took her home.

Its now 10/09/07 and she weighs 1lb 3oz or 538gram's, see picture right, she is eating per day, 3 chicks 3 small bits of turkey and dry food, she will slow down once she gets to her ideal weight, she has a wonderful temperament but still has a way to go before she can be re-homed, the picture above was easy to take because she was so weak, I had to put ferretone on the bed to take the one on the right because she wouldn't stay still.

26/09/07

Here is the girl from above she stayed at a weight of 1lb 3oz for a long time so I decided to give her 1 cube of chicken gravy twice a day and her weight went up to 1lb 4 1/2oz and I think you can see she is looking a lot better from the side on pictures, I thought I would try her with another ferret so I got Sole out and put them together but when Sole just sniffed her neck she screamed and backed away, she used to be in with the 4 girls but she may not want to be with another new ferret because she was bullied by one, nearly to death.

 

03/11/07

Peter went to Norway to judge a ferret show and an Albino Jill came best in show even though there was lots of black ferrets at the show, Peter has been asked to judge in Sweden next year, we will have to put Peter Knight international ferret judge, on his cards. I did ask Peter to get lots of pictures at the show but his camera's batteries gave up after two bad pictures some Norwegians took lots of pictures and said they would send them to us, then I would put them on the site.

If you came to any of our shows you may have met Heather she has started to help out at the Dangerous wild animal rescue facility run by Iain Newby and his partner Lisa Tremble, below is a picture taken on heather's phone of the Alligator other animals at the rescue at the moment are a monkey, snakes, lizards, parrot's and small fury's, all are for re homing to the right home, and if you are thinking of calling to re home the alligator you had better own a zoo, check out the web site www.dwarf.org.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

07/11/07

Christmas has come early to Shirley this year she was at the dog club and when she got home yesterday, she found a lovely bucket on her doorstep, shown below with three baby Jills in it, two albinos and one sandy shown below right, this one got her picture taken because she didn't bite as much as the other two because they where very thin, though there wasn't any card with the present.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that's two more albino Jills to join the other nine albino Jills that are desperately looking for a home. The problem with all the albino's, is not only is it sad that they sit in the cages with no one interested in them because of there color but eventually all the cage's will be full of albino's and we will stop being a rescue, the sandy ferret in the bucket will get a home no problem because its colored but her sisters may not be so lucky, so if you would like to do something good this Christmas come and give an albino ferret a home, but only if you can give them the love they need.

 

28/11/07

Update on the three Jills in the bucket the person that left them on the rescue centre doorstep was only looking after them for someone and had to move out of the place where he was living also he had only fed them every three days, the owner came home to no ferrets, he came to the rescue centre and took them home, maybe he will leave them with us next time.

So we are back to nine albino Jills looking for a home, for now!

 

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