Dee wrote:
 
>Well, after viewing all the photos of the MD rescue, I am just stunned.
>I attended ferret shows about 5-6 years ago and had met and spoken with
>Diana Bachman of Frosty Paws Ferrets at several of them.  Her ferrets
>always appeared to be well taken care of and cared for.  I am
>dumbfounded.  How can someone that loves ferrets treat them in this way?
>How can you clean up a select few and take them to a show, knowing what
>horrendous conditions they came from and will return to.
 
I know what you mean.  There have been three (I think) situations like
this in recent years: people who had one face at shows but their
conditions were absolutely terrible.  I guess that is why I amended my
comment in my other post about everyone here caring for ferrets, because
there have been a few such hurtful people here in the past so maybe there
still are a few people in our midst who are still abusers (a spooky
thought), or abusers who go on all sorts of jaunts with others without
anyone who accompanies them being aware of what exists behind closed
doors.  After all, if they don't have other ferret people coming over, or
don't have friends who are vets who do housecalls for them at times like
we are lucky enough to have, or both, then who knows?  It's a terrible
thing to be reminded of: that we really DON'T know.  I guess that is one
of the horrid aspects of this current situation: we all have to realize
that not everyone is trustworthy but at the same time we are used to
feeling like an FML family and we NEED to feel that way to be most
effective and helpful.  So, I guess we're in situation which is like
having that rare certain relative who is a shame.  We all just have to be
careful to not let that sad view into reality over-shadow the two most
important issues here:
 
1. Those ferrets need everyone's help.  (PLEASE, please, please,
please!) I heard last night from someone who wanted to give to the effort
in memory of our Chiclet and both Steve and I shed very appreciative
tears.  This is huge undertaking and everyone's help is sorely needed.
 
2. For the sake of the ferrets and as a community we really do need
strong guidelines to help make all types of legal seizures most effective
in STOPPING abusers.
 
See:  http://www.pooflinger.com/hagerstown/ferrets.html,
http://www.pooflinger.com/hagerstown/, and
http://supportourshelters.org
 
I was thinking?  At shows do judges count the degree of muscle mass as an
important criterion?  A lot of muscle mass says a lot about home life.
 
Jacobs idea: I think I see what you are saying, Jacob: the identities
would be verified and the data would be shared among the shelters
regionally so then a pattern in any given regional location would show
up.  Is that right?  I can't help but wonder if such a pattern might
also be more likely to point to people who need to be visited by animal
control, too.
 
Jodi, how much pred in milliGRAMS is the ferret getting?  The liquid
preps come in multiple concentrations so volume isn't helpful, I'm
afraid.
 
Ferrets are very resistant to the side effects of pred that affect so
many other species.  We have one who has long term IBD and he has lost a
lot of his fur from it (and when he has his GI specimens taken next his
adrenals will be checked again for safety's sake but he tests fine and he
doesn't respond to Lupron) but otherwise he's in marvelous shape for a
little guy with worsening IBD -- very active, very kissy, very happy,
loves to show off his tricks, etc.
[Posted in FML issue 4224]