When I was a small child, a flu was a flu and a cold was a cold. They
were very different. A cold always stayed in your sinus, head, and
throat area. No fever, but some fatigue. It was mild enough that you
could pop an OTC prescription and toddle off to work fairly easily.
They lasted 3-7 days. Upper Respiritory Infections were just that.
They were like a cold, but were either all, or at least mostly in
your chest. They lasted about a week or so. They made you feel ucky.
Sometimes they could brew into a wicked bacterial infection and
bronchitis ... or worse. But they were relatively harmless. Then there
was the flu. Nothing was like the flu. The flu hit you like a ton of
bricks, with aches, pains, high fever, coughing, sneezing, etc. You
were out for the duration and its effects always took about 10 days.
You were fatigued and felt like you were hit by a truck for days after
that. There was no confusion between a cold and flu.

Today, I've noticed that people use the term flu, cold, uri
interchangebly. People get severe colds and they'll call it the flu. Or
they'll get an uri and call it a cold. In modern times we have umpteen
variations of colds, uri, and other virus's. It seems like rarely do
you get a simple, mild cold. The colds seem much more severe today and
with multiple symptoms than long ago. The flu is still the flu. But as
I said, with such a large spectrum of virii out there ... things seem
to run together and get mislabled.

I am writing because so many times we read that "ferrets can't get
colds, the only get the flu". Well, too many times we don't know what
we have. Too many times, we've had what appears to be a bad cold and
wella ... the ferrets get it. I think this is why some people believe
that ferrets can indeed get colds (rhinovirus), not just flu. I think
that sometimes a flu nowadays can be mild, and mistaken for a cold or
an URI. Sean came home with the flu. We thought it was a bad cold. He
seemed to bounce right back from it and never spoke of aches and pains.
Well a few days after he had this "bug", two other people in the house
came down with a full blown flu at the same exact time. All within the
expected incubation time. So now, we know Sean did have a flu. It was
too late. We thought it was a cold. So Sean was allowed to visit the
ferrets. And we werent' very careful around them when we visited them.
The ferrets ended up sicker than I had ever seen them in 8 years. Those
poor things. They went through hell for almost the entire 10 days.

So this is my warning. I think we should warn people to be careful
about any type of virus that hits our head or chest area. If you get a
"bug" in those areas, treat the situation as it were the flu. I think
this is one of the few and only times we need to not be so picky about
scientific terms, syntax, etc anymore. My worry is that people will be
lax around their pets because they think they don't have the flu and
they do. Just like we did. Had we any compromised or older ferrets,
this would have been awful. So, can we just say that they pick up
respiratory virus's such as the flu? And becareful when you have a
cold in case its a little more than a cold?? And maybe drop the
forceful, "They don't get colds" thing? Elaborate more with people?
Tell them to error on the side of caution?

I really think this is important.

[Posted in FML 6247]