I was really disappointed to read the article stating that Petco will
continue to buy from RWE. A little over a year ago, I purchased an
8-week old kit from Petco that was RWE stock. I also adopted a 3-month
old kit that was "too old and too large to sell...he's going to the
shelter soon, anyways, so you may as well take him home for free". He
was being kept in the back for "a respiratory infection, but "he's had
his antibiotics, so he's all good to go home!". That's my Chewy booger
they were talking about there. He has since left us =(. The 8-week old
(Grubby), is still hanging in there with the help of supportive care,
but barely.

A year later, Chewy died rather suddenly about two weeks ago. I am
still so heart broken I can barely type about it. He had been sick
since the day we brought him home and on supportive care (special diet,
interferon + antibiotics, and steroids, etc), but we didn't think he
was ready to go until he took a turn for the worse, literally, over
night. Whatever he had, he also gave it to Grubby. They have both had
chronic respiratory infections for the entire year we've had them. No
amount of oral or injectable antibiotics has helped (because they
are obviously immune-compromised, so pretty much anything can set up
house in their resp. tracts). After spending about 2000 on tests at
specialized facilities, we still don't know what was wrong with Chewy.
Luckily, none of the other 4 fuzzies we adopted seemed to become
affected with whatever this immune-compromising infection is. If they
did, they either got over it (probably b/c they were not kits when
exposed) or are now carriers. Hence, we cannot even adopt or foster
new fuzzies until our current business is no longer with us for fear
of spreading whatever killed Chewy =(.

Waiting on the post mortem results right now. The tentative diagnosis
from all of these exams (and the extremely high serum protein and
immunoglobulin levels + enlarged spleen that had to be removed) is
either ADV (with a concomitant false-negative on the ELISA test,
haven't gotten the PCR results yet, waiting on a university study that
took samples more than 4 months ago....) or that new FIP-like illness
that I hear of more and more, lately. Of course, we can't be certain
that Chewy came from the breeder ill. It could have been poor husbandry
practices at the store. Either way, we will probably never know, but
one of the staff at the store said he was sick on arrival.....

In answer to those who ask about MF vs. the alternative, yes I would
much rather have a MF ferret than a RWE; that is something I have
certainly learned from my own personal experience. So far, MF seems
to be the lesser of two evils. At least none of my MF babies have died
of anything mysterious. Those that have passed had "normal" ferret
ailments that probably have as much to do with husbandry and keeping
them in artificial environments as it does with bad breeding (who
knows?). However, I would prefer if private breeders were, indeed, the
only option. Yes, it would make fuzzies more expensive to purchase,
but perhaps that would mean less fuzzies bought on impulse that end up
at the shelter =(. It's sad to say, but money is a higher priority
for many people (especially those that ditch their pets without much
thought) than animal life, so I think people would be more inclined to
do some research before buying if they had to pay 500 versus 100 or
150, etc. Those that love our fuzzies and would never give them up
barring extreme emergency would pay that higher price, I would think
(though it would be a long time of clearing the shelters before we'd
have to resort to that). It might also mean less heart break from
buying these kits in good faith, then losing them only a year later.
If individual breeders gained a reputation for selling sick kits as
pets (can't speak for those who breed for more insidious reasons),
they would probably not be in business for very long.

Lastly, wanted to send out a big thank you to those in the ferret
community that watch over the affairs at these farms and stores and
advocate for the naive, heart-broken consumers (like me....well, not
so much anymore...learned my lesson the very hard way).

We miss you, Chewy. Keep chomping on those socks until we meet again,
love.

-- 
Rachael Harrison
Doctoral Candidate
Physiology and Functional Genomics
College of Medicine
University of Florida
(352) 392-9236
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[Posted in FML 5895]