Sue wrote:
>I don't have ANY plants in my apartment (I figured why make the worry when
>I can avoid it all together??LOL) , so my first instinct was to panic that
>the petals would be poisonous. Dante seems fine with the exception that
Luckily most plants are safe, though those which aren't can be unsafe in
a major ways. There are some excellent and affordable resources on
poisons out there which list a multitude of types (plants, fish, chemical
compounds, etc.).
We actually have two planters planted specifically with herbs that the
ferrets can safely roll in and munch on if they want.
>Well, Children's Services came by today and we passed with flying colors.
>They didn't even mention the ferrets. Thank you all for the help and
>support. I am just glad that this is over.
>
>Fuzzie Hugs,
>David
How about now educating your local paramedics? Let them know that the
ferrets aren't a danger and pass along the hard info. A few years back
there was a really, really BAD article in one of the emergency med
journals (which apparently didn't feel that statements need to be based
upon facts, and articles didn't need to be judged by knowledgeable souls
pre-publication), and that article made it sound like attacks by ferrets
are common, that there isn't a USDA approved rabies vax, that the CDC
hadn't studied them, etc. By giving them the three parts of the Compendium
of Animal Rabies Control (available in professional/public health resources
at the AVMA website) and (later?) also the contact info for the state
public health vet in charge of rabies policies (or better, a copy of a
letter from this pro) you protect not only your ferrets but all in the
community. One of the real backwaters for NOT having accurate info on
ferrets in relation to health is OFTEN the medical community: physicians,
emergency rooms, some local health departments, paramedics, etc. That is
why folks are so often encouraged to go
http://www.avma.org/pubhlth/rabcont.asp
and to print out these three sections, then send them to local emergency
rooms, ambulance services, your physicians, and to local health depts.
( If someone else is in an FFZ like CA, NYC, DC, etc. don't mention
ferrets specifically since the document tells about a range of animals.)
Reminder of health resources since there have recently been some
questions again on some common aspects of widely covered topics:
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list
http://www.ferretdoctor.com
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.ferret.net/medical/
http://www.trifl.org/medical.html
http://home.att.net/~hhoefer/
http://www.lbah.com/Ferrets/insulinoma.htm
http://www.ferretcentral.org
For those not used to looking up things in websites clicking on the places
in the Trifl site may be the easiest to use. Easy pointers: if you see
something of interest which is highlighted or which responds to your cursor
then click on it or double click on it to open or to transfer to a linked
website. When using search boxes some will do phrases in quotes.
[Posted in FML issue 3520]
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