To Mary & Eric of Modern Ferret:
 
I am confused. You posted last week that in order to qualify for periodical
rate with the USPS, you would have lots of record keeping preparations and
that you could no longer donate copies.
 
Having been the Circulation Manager of an international magazine for five
years, I was responsible for the mags being mailed and working with the Post
Office on our postal audits.  While I don't claim to be an expert, I hope
what our office experienced can help you...
 
Our requirement for qualifying for second class mail was 50%+1, which meant
that for all the magazines shipped through the Post Office via second class
mail we were required to prove that 50% of the copies plus one more were
paid subscriptions.  For instance, if I mailed 1,000 copies of the magazine
through second class mail, I would have to prove that 501 copies were paid
subscriptions.
 
This does not include the copies that are mailed to distributors,special
promotions (giveaways), or copies that you may distribute at shows.  And the
remaining 499 copies may be "Bill-Me" subscriptions or sample copies or even
complimentary copies.  (Again, I may publish 40,000 copies of my magazine,
but only mail 5,000 through second class.  The PO is only concerned with the
5,000 copies)
 
For the yearly audits, we would send the Post Office a mailing statement
with an extra set of labels.  The PO would select 15 - 20 names to
"spot-check" our list.  For each of these names, we had to show the
subscriber name listed on a deposit slip and the actual bank deposit slip as
proof.  (Magazines are also required to publish a Mailing Statement once a
year in one of their issues)   Occasionally, the PO wanted to come to our
office and let them look through our records.  If one of the names that the
PO selected was a non-paid issue, we would show the request for the free
subscription instead.
 
While the paperwork required to obtain this special class of mail is
tedious, I highly recommend that you request it from the PO as soon as you
can.  Just be as meticulous with your deposit records as you can and if you
need any help, be sure to ask others in the industry for help.  Publishing
can be a tough business - I wish you good luck!
 
Dr Williams:
 
I have another question regarding Casper's hind-end paralysis.  As a quickie
refresher for you, Casper displayed hind end paresis which I spoke to you
about a couple of months ago.  Dr Kemmerer was consulted and she removed
Casper's left adrenal gland on Sept 6.  Casper was placed on Bethanechol was
a week and was doing well.
 
After Casper finished the week (10 days?) of Bethanechol, he slowly began to
lose more of his ability to walk until now, in the past few weeks, he is
unable to walk or urinate on his own.  (He also has had problems with
defecating since he can't lift his rear end.  He is able to go, but I don't
think he is able to control his sphincter.) I consulted Dr Kemmerer two
weeks ago and she placed Casper back on the Bethanechol.  She told me that
it could take 6 weeks for Casper's body to rid itself of the damage done by
the hyper functioning adrenal and that we needed to wait and see.
 
I have an appointment to take Casper back to Gainesville on Saturday, Oct
26.  I believe she will be taking x-rays of Casper...My question to you is
do you have ideas of the cause of this continued deterioration in Casper's
condition?  Is there anything I should ask Dr Kemmerer when I go?  Am I
missing a piece of the puzzle, some clue as to why he is still unable to
walk?  Any suggestions you can offer me would be greatly appreciated!!
 
Vaccine reactions:
 
We give all ferrets turned into us distemper vaccinations.  (Rabies is done
by any one of the vets we work with.)  In the 230 ferrets that have come
through the shelter, we have never had one have a reaction to a vaccination -
until last week,that is.
 
When this one ferret was vaccinated, within 5 minutes he began to show a
reaction.  The first sign that something was wrong was his *poofed* tail.
When I picked him up to see if he was alright, I noticed that his nose and
ears were a very bright pink.  Within a few seconds of that, he began to
heave as if he was going vomit and then he lost control of his bowels.  We
decided not to take any chances and immediately took the ferret to the
clinic.  On the way, he began to pant and seemed to have trouble breathing.
He was given a shot of benedryl and a steroid (cortison for shock?) at the
clinic and we were told to watch him throught the night, administering
liquid benedryl as needed.
 
This reaction completely caught us off guard! (This ferret is young too,
seven months, we were told.) The little beastie seems to be ok now and is
quite a handful from what I hear...He certainly stole my heart that night!
 
Happy ferreting!
 
Susie
[Posted in FML issue 1727]