April Armstrong wrote:
>I have just been thinking, since the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
>has been so instrumental in advances in ferret medicine, how come people
>in the military still can't have ferrets in military housing, and the
>military's reasoning is because ferrets are "wild animals"?  (There was a
>very recent post about an Army wife looking for a home for her ferret b/c
>of this....)
 
Some can.  The choice is made in two ways: the local laws are followed,
and then any further restriction can be added on top by the bases's local
ranking officer.  That means that a base can have a knowledgeable officer
who allows them but if the person is transferred and a fool comes in then
that could change almost over-night.  Technically, the military policy
across the board has followed the Compendium of Animal Rabies Control since
1998 (except where the local laws are stricter and that's rare) since that
part of policy if set by one branch and then extended across the branches.
Of course, that doesn't mean that the local officers necessarily are AWARE
of the Compendium or of local laws on that regard, just that they are
supposed to be.
 
Just had a phone call from someone who didn't leave number or address
needing to know about affording Lupron: doses and sources; best bet is
to go Dr. Charles Weiss's site:
http://www.ferretdoctor.com .
 
Here are other fine sites for medical info and for linking to more.  If
you join the FHL you can post questions as well, but due to have many
well-informed members (including many vets) the files are extensive so
using the search feature is often good enough.  The Miami Ferret site
has a pile of info on assorted topics.  Dr. Bruce's William's site is the
afip one.
 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list
 
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc
 
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
 
http://www.trifl.org/medical.html
 
http://www.ferretcentral.org
 
For inflammatory bowel disease start at the afip site or the FHL.
 
Everyone should keep these addies on file!  They are ESSENTIALS.
[Posted in FML issue 3477]