I've been a subscriber since last September but have never posted so i would
like to introduce my family-there's my husband (Dean); our 7 ferrets:TARZAN
(our hyperactive one, a sable male),CHEETAH (a sable female); BUTCH (sable
male), Ning (sable female), Kokela (sable female), PANDORA(female with one
foot missing, sort of a panda but marking are not very clearcut) and POSSUM
(female, sort of a silver mitt-we have had her the longest). All are
neutered.  We had two more who died: MIRACLE was our first ferret and he
succumbed to cancer several years ago and JANE who just died in October from
cardiac complications.  All of our ferrets were either adopted from the
shelter in Chicago or from a research project. We also have a cat (DORIAN
GRAY) and I have 2 saddlebred horses.
The FML is the only electronec list that I subscribe to and I 'm very
impressed with it.  I enjoy reading about other ferret antics, new toy
suggestions etc. and am very grateful for Dr. Williams input.  At this point I
wish to comment on the Kansas case.   If the story is factual (and I
believe it is) then this is a very frightening incident.  There was another
similar incident that occurred here in Madison WI during the 3 or 4th week
in December- a pet ferret got loose, ended up on someones porch-this person
evidently came out and kicked at it and it bit her.  Authorities (animal
control?) were called and the ferret was killed because ofthe "shedding
time" factor.  My husband and I and several other ferret lovers are
inquiring about this incident so we will have our facts straight and maybe we
 can
do SOMETHING( I don"t know what yet).   These events came as a shock to us
because we naively assumed that USDA approval to use this vaccine in ferrets
implied that the correct studies were done and that our ferrets would be
protected from this sort of seizure by authorities.  I do know that we will
be very careful about letting our ferrets interact with visitors just in
case!  I'm also wondering why the company that produces the vaccine doesn't
contribute to the shedding time study.  Another question- if the shedding
time study is done will our ferrets then be protected from the authorities?
Sorry for going on for so long!  Judy Manning
 
[Posted in FML issue 0723]