Hello everyone,
apologies for the delay in replying, but toxicology took an age.

Sadly, we lost our last ferret Spike, a couple of weeks ago. We had a
post-mortem on him and it was confirmed as the same cause of death that
killed the other 5: internal haemorrhaging.

As I previously explained, our ferrets were kept in an outdoor wooden
shed and pen combo, what we Brits call a 'Ferret Court'. We had thought
they'd suffered heat stroke at some point, but that has now been
ruled-out. It turns out they died from poisoning, a rat poison called
Coumatetralyl.

"...report confirms the presence of coumatetralyl in association with
a sulphonamide within the submitted samples. Coumatetralyl is a first
generation anticoagulant of the 4-hydroxycoumarin vitamin K antagonist
type and is used as an active compound in rodenticides. Example
manufacturers of products using this active include Bayer CropScience,
King Tech Kukbo Science Co. Ltd and Fujian Sannong Group Co., Ltd..
Example products include "Racumitil", "Stunt", "Ratryl and "Cumakil".
It appears noteworthy that this compound has a UK LERAP (Local
Environment Risk Assessment for Pesticides) status of "No UK
approval-for use or outside scope" and its status under the EU Reg.
(EC) No 1107/2009 (repealing Directive gl/4l4lEEC) is "Not Approved"
(current Legislation Z0O4/LZ%/EC)."

In other words, this is an illegal pesticide in the UK and EU. The
reason it has been illegal for quite some years is that it is a
'secondary poison'. In other words, not only is it slow-acting in the
target animals (rats and mice), it can also affect animals that eat
those mice, including protected species of birds of prey, bats, stoats
etc. As well as domestic pets like my ferrets. No one should be using
it in my area, which is a residential estate backing onto a light
industrial area, in the middle of arable farmland. We have several
rare species of predator in the area, including Red Kites which are
critically endangered.

The most likely way the ferrets were poisoned is in eating affected
mice. We never paid much attention to mice getting into the ferret pen,
as we thought they'd just eat them (which they did). It never occurred
to us anyone would be using a secondary poison that could kill our
ferrets, and its distressing to realise that the vet found the culprit
too late.

However, the result have at least given us peace that it was nothing we
did, or could have been expected to know about. No one round here has
even heard of the poison - I'm assuming one of my elderly neighbours
had some in the garage or something. Probably had no idea how dangerous
it was/is.

We have an indoor cage now, a Liberta Explorer, and three new ferrets
from a local rescue: Gerald (an albino with one eye and a bent tail,
who was found being kicked around a football field by some youths),
Lucky (a sandy jill found playing 'chicken' with the cars on the A10
and covered in ticks) and Silas (a hybrid hob). Gerald got a bit
spoiled after Spike's death, so he's been a bit of a diva trying to
re-introduce him to other ferrets. But we've now got them all together
in the cage, not fighting. Lucky's being neutered on Friday, so that
too should help.

Outside, we're rebuilding our ferret court to be not bigger, but better
and mouse-proof. Which is a challenge as mice can get in the tiniest of
holes. At least we know the wood preservative is safe. But it would be
nice for our ferrets to play outside, especially as its so hot and
humid in our part of Britain at the moment.

Incidentally, I also lost my dog. He had lung cancer, nothing to do
with the poison, but it all happened at the same time so we've had
the 6 months from hell. But hopefully things are on the up now.

Anna Hayward

[Posted in FML 7836]