[Moderator's note: The shelter's response appears in the next post. BIG]

The 2 people this information is from will not go on record, but one
is a well known and well liked vet who specializes in ferrets, and the
other is a well known pathologist who specializes in ferrets.

A group of us were sitting around Friday evening, having a few beers
and talking. One vet who was attending brought up the subject of
distemper and whether or not yearly vaccination was really needed for
any species. As the comments on that topic faded, I turned to the vet
mentioned above, and asked if he had heard about the distemper outbreak
in Washington, and given that the ferrets had been vaccinated, asked
could we really trust any of the vaccines out on the market. He
suggested I should talk with the pathologist (who was sitting next to
me) because he knew the full story better than anyone else there.

And so, what I was told was that "the ferret's vet" had sent in
necropsy samples thinking she had come upon a 'hot' strain of
mycoplasmosis. The pathologist immediately recognized it was distemper,
and got back to her with that information. At that point, "the ferret's
vet" claimed she didn't believe it because the ferrets had been
vaccinated. Things went back and forth for a while, and finally the
pathologist wanted to get additional samples, as well as any remaining
vials of vaccine from the lot, for more testing, and told "the ferret's
vet" that they should write a paper on this. At that point "the
ferret's vet" said they couldn't do that, and admitted the ferrets had
not been vaccinated. New intakes had not been vaccinated in the shelter
at all, and most of the ones that had been in the shelter for over a
year were not up to date on vaccinations. The ones that got really sick
and died were the ones with unknown vaccination history who had not
received any vaccinations since coming into the shelter or ones that
were way past due for boosters.

So, there was no report filed with Merial, because the vaccine was not
the problem.

Now, the vet who is well known and liked happens to like to push "the
ferret's vet's" buttons at times, because she will often start to say
stupid things. When he heard about the outbreak, he called her to get
more information. By questioning some of her claims, she started to
make contradicting comments, and eventually admitted to him the ferrets
had not been vaccinated.

Both the vet and the pathologist stressed that they did not know what
"the shelter operator" did or did not know about the vaccination
situation, since their conversations were just with "the ferret's vet".
Both are hoping that "the ferret's vet" will come clean, and admit to
what really happened up there, as many people are likely to feel that
if so many vaccinated ferrets can die from distemper, there is really
no reason to vaccinate.

Anyway, we may never know the complete truth about the outbreak, but
it appears it was not due to ineffective vaccine, but lack of proper
vaccination protocols. Still, a very sad situation, regardless.

TheTruthForFerrets
Doing What's Right For Ferrets!

[Posted in FML 7098]