>... PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!  Isolate and quarantine all new ferrets in your home
>from your existing ferrets.  Follow all quarantine procedures, including
>hand sanitizing and changing of clothes between the separate groups.  The
>things that can be transmitted unwittingly can be horrifying.  For the
>life of your ferrets, don't forgo this important time.
 
I guess I have a really big question here.  It's not that I don't think
quarantining is important, just that I don't understand exactly what a one
or two week quarantine is going to do.  ECE is the most common nasty thing
to be brought into a new home, and there's no test for it and no way to
tell, other than the obvious symptoms, if a ferret has had it.  And if a
ferret has, and is contagious, a quarantine period's not going to help.
There's the danger of rabies, which is minor, especially if your current
ferrets are vaccinated.  And the chance of a ferret being rabid, even one
found outside, is pretty slim.  Someone had the statistics on known rabies
cases in ferrets--Bob C?  Was that you?  Distemper's a danger, but only if
your ferrets aren't vaccinated against it.  I would think encounters with
strange dogs would be more dangerous than strange ferrets, too, but I could
be wrong there.
 
The most common serious ferret diseases that we talk about here--adrenal
disease and insulinoma--are almost certainly not communicable or linked to
anything that is.
 
The only other communicable diseases we've had show up in our business
are varients on the common cold and one icky-but-not-horrible bout with
conjunctivitis.  As far as we can tell, they caught all of it from us, and
I'm one of those carrier people; I rarely show symptoms of disease, and
generally don't even know I've picked something up until everyone around
me starts getting sick.  So quarantining myself really isn't an option.
Besides, if I did, who on earth would scoop litterboxes a hundred times a
day? :-)
 
So, anyway--someone, please, tell me what horrible diseases can be
prevented by a two-week quarantine?
 
And yes, we do keep newcomers isolated for a while after they get
here--long enough to tell that they seem healthy, are eating well and
drinking enough, have normal stools, and have made a safe transition.
Obviously, if we notice anything unusual, they stay isolated until they're
checked out for it...
 
I just read back through this and I sound kind of antagonistic.  It's not
my intention to, honest.  If you've gotten annoyed or offended, do me a
favor and imagine me with a really puzzled, quizzical look on my face.  I'm
mostly just wondering if there's a serious ferret disease out there I ought
to know about and don't. :-)
 
Jen and the Crazy Business
[Posted in FML issue 2812]