Dear Dori:
 
>There is a ferret shelter nearby that I REALLY want to do some volunteer
>work at... but now I'm concerned about bringing ADV home to them.  Also,
>Spanky had a SEVERE case of ECE when he was 2 and an only ferret and the
>next winter he got it again with his then new Little Sister altho it was
>not so severe a case.... If he could get it twce, is there a possiblity
>I could expose them to not only ADV but to ECE again?  coming home and
>stripping off clothes and shoes immediatly for bleach-wash is not really
>an option....
 
Question asked and answered.  If you can't do the sanitation and clean up
immediately on return, I wouldn't do it.  While ADV is not as contagious
as ECE, and both of your ferrets have had ECE, so it shouldn't be so much
of an issue, the key to volunteer work with pet ferrets at home is strict
contamination control.  Without it, you are risking the health of your own
ferrets - at my house, a 01% risk of ADV or ECE is too much.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3284]