Hi everyone!
 
I just wanted to commenton ferrets with ECE and whether or not they should
be able to show.  I attend shows with great enthusiasm about 3 - 4 times a
year, not just to show, but to run a table for our rescue.  Every ferret
that has been in our rescue has been exposed to ECE.  This has been since
1993.  Before I took my first ferret to any show, I contacted a number of
people(8) who had prior experience with ECE and ferrets and asked if I
should show my ferrets and I was told by these people (two of which were
members of the AFA, the sponsors of the ferret show) that as long as my
ferret did not exhibit any symptoms of ECE in the last 6 months, that they
were safe to take to the show.  I understand your feelings about ECE, and I
was not offended.  But look at it from my perspective - we have ECE and the
experts that I talked to about it said it was ok - what would you have done?
I would never take a ferret exhibiting any signs of illness to a ferret show
anyway - the stress would just make it worse!  I hope that you do decide to
attend the show, even if you do not enter a ferret.  There are precautions
that you can take to minimize exposure to ECE, and shows really are a lot of
fun!
 
As far as a snaggletoothed ferret, I had one - a little black sable by the
name of Bandit.  She weighed in at .9 lbs and had a broken lower canine.
The canine was also angled out towards her lip, and gave her a perpetual
sneer - hence the nickname "Elvis".  She had a little indentation in her
upper lip from the tooth, but I had three vets look at her, and they all
said that if the tooth was not bothering the lip, and no problems with the
area of her lip that had constant contact with the tooth, to leave it alone.
We were lucky to have had Bandit for three years before she died from
complications of adrenal/insulinoma surgery at age six - and the tooth never
bothered her.  I guess my opinion is that if the vet says "take the tooth"
then remove it, but if not - leave it be!
 
Lisa
[Posted in FML issue 1851]