I spoke to Dr. Karen Rosenthal today for a few minutes about Canine distemper
in ferrets.  A few things might be worth repeating:
 
1) She has heard nthing official about it - in fact the only thing she heard
   was one article that someone forwarded to her via Compuserve.  I dropped
   off some hardcopy postings for her as she was moderately interested.
 
2) She expressed some surprise at the apparent extent of it and also mentioned
   that she would thing that people who go to ferret shows are better educated
   than the "average" ferret owner and would therefore have had their critters
   innoculated.
 
3) None of this was meant to imply that this isn't "for real", but she would
   really really like to hear hard facts about how these ferrets died.  If
   any autopsy reports are available those would be very helpful - she seems
   somewhat worried that there is more going on here than is apparent, but she
   didn't exactly put it this way, so I don't want to put words in her mouth.
 
4) Re vaccinations, she feels that Fromm-D or Fervac-D are both effective.
   She also feels that although recommended interval is 1 year, the vaccine
   is PROBABLY effective for 2, or perhaps even 3 years, so not to panic if
   you are a little behind schedule.  Most importantly, emphatically stated
   that there is no harm in getting your furballs vaccinated again, so if
   you are unsure of your carpet-shark's status, don't hesitate to do it
   again.  In fact, she said you could even vaccinate every day without
   endangering the ferret.
 
[I FAXed copies of Dr. Hoffman's notice to a couple of vets.
Our old and new one, and my sister-in-law's.  My old one, a very
ferret-knowledgeable one didn't seem that interested - saying that CDV
is certainly common enough.  He said the same thing as Dr. Rosenthal
about Fromm-D.  He expressed interest in hearing the final tissue
diagnosis about Tia, but I don't think he'll take things very seriously
until he sees a case, or a couple of ones nearby.  He did consider
"Parvo" rather unlikely - it would make veterinarian history he said -
no ferret has ever been known to fall ill to either canine or feline
Parvovirus.]
 
I took a quick look at FDA vet news releases and there, of course, was nothing
there (but there seldom is).
 
Also note that United Vaccine gives significant price breaks to breeders, vets,
researchers etc - if you can order from a university address you may get a
deal on the price.  But the stuff is not expensive anyhow and they are really
nice to deal with, so use your judgement.
 
Me?  I'm somewhat worried over all of this - I hope we get some harder facts
about what kind of strain this thing is and how effective the vaccines are
against it.
 
Bill
 
P.S. Slink is doing pretty well - still getting food into her lungs, but is
quite bouncy and playful - rather normal actually.  Well, a little rascal
actually, but that's normal for Slink.  Will inform if a trend is apparent.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0275]