I have heard off list that some people are panicking about this. That
is not a reasonable response.

Yes, the distributor sells to a wide area (Pacific NW, Canada, Asia)
BUT THE PERCENTAGE OF SICK FERRET KITS SOUNDS LIKE IT WAS LOW! That
means that vets need to be made aware but panic is a destructive
response. I do NOT know if the problem is still going on, or if it is
past but is one more thing which any breeders and vets need to know can
go wrong for kits.

Historically, pretty well every major breeder has encountered the
problem of having some sort of serious illness in a small percentage of
the kits sold at times, and so far most of them have taken the
constructive and healthy response of addressing the problem with
veterinary attention. Hopefully, this time the involved parties are as
prompt and successful on this score as their competitors have been in
the past with other illnesses. I don't know because I have not heard
any update from the breeder (though some address problems quietly,
while others take the more logical marketing approach of tackling the
health needs and then saying, "Yes, we had a problem but we addressed
it in such and such as way and have instated such and such precautions
to reduce any risk of it happening again.")

Truth be told, I can not think of ANY serious ferret illness which has
not caused certain people to panic (often the same people) and then
talk themselves into seeing or assuming things which are not there, and
working up other people who also are inclined to panic. That can really
twist what vets and other experts have said, I am afraid. It happened
with the regionally localized first highly fatal version of coccidia;
it happened with DIM; it happened with people confusing normal and
healthy immune responses to vaccines with vaccine reactions; it
happened with the new variant of ECE; it happened with a whole range of
new and unusual things. Heck, I even can recall someone (remaining
unnamed) who assumed that a ferret who probably had influenza had SARS
after she read of studies on it and of SARS being in a totally
different continent. A few people truly were encountering those
illnesses (except for SARS) in their pet ferrets but the numbers were
small, just as they are with the mycobacteria now.

Strangely, that level of people working themselves up does not --
usually -- seem to happen with serious and more easily encountered
illnesses like canine distemper, or food poisoning... There also has
not been that response to some more common and fatal illnesses like
some coccidia variants even when they were new illnesses. I have no
idea how to tell which illnesses will cause a core of people to panic
and spread their panic with inaccurate assumptions attached.

BTW, Dr. Matti Kiupel is at Michigan State and is in a wonderful,
wonderful group, the Ferret Health Group, there which has made huge
advances in the information on ferret illnesses and needs everyone's
thanks: http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
He is not at Michigan University.

HERE IS MY REQUEST: I know that a number of you are on other lists and
I have heard that there is panic on some of those. Please, help those
people get a more balanced and accurate view of what is going on.
Remember that statements from those who have encountered it say that
this does NOT seem to be highly contagious if it even is contagious
from ferret to ferret (since some people have had others living with
the affected ferrets and have had no spread it might not be but I have
not learned enough from reputable sources to know which is the accurate
statement).

Instead, some of the arriving kits with very, very bad coughs have
had this and if the treating vet thinks that is a possibility then
specimens should go to Michigan State or to NW Zoopath.

This disease is one to take seriously when encountered but it is not a
situation which involves high numbers of ferrets. Heck, any kit with an
extreme cough -- from ANY type of cause -- needs to be taken seriously,
tested and treated, NO MATTER WHAT ILLNESS the kit has: influenza (the
common one), pneumonia, JL, mycobacteria, etc. DO NOT ASSUME THAT ANY
COUGHING KIT HAS THIS, and don't freak out. The probability of this is
much lower than the more common illnesses.

That's it. So, TAKE A DEEP BREATH! Heck, take ten deep breaths! There
is no constructive reason to respond to such new things with huge panic
and even less to spread such panic. Sharing facts in fine, but this
sounds like in some lists it has reached a point where people are very
much misinterpreting the numbers involved or otherwise causing panic.

POINTER: few new illnesses involve large number of ferrets. If they do
then the veterinarians will say that many are involved (as happened
with the original ECE after a while), and that sort of announcement has
NOT happened in relation to this illness. I guess that those of us who
get used to such disease announcements tend too often to not say that
because we assume people realize it. The reality is that it can be very
hard to predict what will send some people into panic spirals, I'm
afraid.

BTW, in keeping with the FHL rules the breeder name will not be in
future posts on the topic unless there is a special reason to do so,
for example, if the breeder announces what it has done and is doing to
address this and to reduce the chances of it happening in the future.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 6795]