Mike wrote:
>At the symposium in Atlanta, I believe Dr. Kemmerer said that a lot
>of the heartworm positive ferrets she sees have NEVER been outdoors.
>So keeping your ferrets indoors is not necessarily a good method of
>prevention if you're in an area that has heartworm and mosquitos, which
>is just about everywhere.
 
I'm inside taking a break from trying to find the mosquito which keeps
biting me; add onto that the fact that during ragweed season I don't
breathe well so out windows have been shut for a few weeks and door
opened only when Steve went in and out, and it's pretty obvious that
mosquitos can in places.  Heck, they are small enough to follow the
leaky spaces where a door or window doesn't fit quite right...
 
If an area is known for heartworm the only logical thing to do is to use
preventatives.  (Luckily, around us it is a rare enough problem that even
the vets here so far haven't tended to worry about our ferrets that way,
but some areas of the nation are very prone to it.  We've got more than
out share of some other arthropod transported illnesses, though.  Did you
know that about 90% of the animal species on Earth are arthropods?)
 
And now that I have scratched my right arm way too much (which made
me have to correct some typing), I'm going to try to find that little
buzzer again.  Guess it felt like coming in out of the rain.  (Hey, 4
prepositions in a row, a new record!)
 
[P.S.] addendum
 
It's after 3 a.m; I can't count.  3 not 4 prepositions.  No record
tonight.  On the brighter side I think I got the mosquito...
[Posted in FML issue 4631]