This weekend, a reputable vet wanted to surrender a ferret she found
last week to me.  I asked her to please ADV test the ferret for me.  She
said "Well, ADV is not in Canada"
 
So, I asked her, "Do you test for ADV regularly?".  After a long silence
on the phone, she said "No".
 
"So, how can you say ADV is not in Canada if you are not testing for it
on a regular basis" I asked.
 
"Good point" she concluded.
 
I've been yelling at vets and ferret lovers for years to take ADV
seriously in Ontario.  I've been testing my ferrets since 2000, ALL of
them.  I've been trying to educate my members, my volunteers, my ferret
friends.  I have felt like i have been screaming on deaf ears for many
years - felt like no one took me seriously.  Once even had a reputable
ferret vet tell me "ADV is no big deal Randy.  Ferrets can live long,
happy lives with it".  My jaw hit the ground - I was speechless.....
 
Well, now we have a confirmed case of it in Ontario.  I chatted with one
of my vets about it.  She was speechless.....
 
The owner of the Niagara Falls, Ontario ferret wishes to remain nameless.
She doesn't want to be ostracized or poked at.  She is scared, just
finding out today her ferret has ADV.  She was lucky she found out her
ferret has ADV.  She was NEVER going to test.  Why did she test?  She
wanted to visit our shelter and our policy is to have people test their
ferrets before allowing them to come into our shelter.
 
Why wasn't she going to test?  Because it is VERY expensive to test in
this country!!!!!  For instance, one vet in Toronto (I will not mention
names in this post) will charge up to $180 to send 1 blood test to United
Vaccine for a CEP test (the one that we recommend).  The same vet will
charge $240 to send blood off to Vita Tech for another ADV test (not sure
which one).  All of this and it doesn't include the cost of the office
visit which is another $60 PLUS tax!!!!!  The reason for this is quite
simple i'm told.  BOARDER crossing with biohazards.  Blood is a
biohazard, therefore, it costs a lot more to fill out paperwork and
overnight post blood across the boarder to the USA for testing.
 
Other ferret vets i called had not even heard of the United Vaccine test.
They were still thinking our University did tests (which wasn't a CEP
test and produced many false positives in the past).  Our University
stopped doing ADV tests about 2 years ago.  SO, I called the University
and asked them where they sent the tests (had heard a rumor they were
sending to a Canadian lab that did CEP tests) and chatted with the head
of virology.  Seems that there has been an increased concern among the
fur industry about ADV in Canada (humm....) and this has encouraged our
University to look into CEP testing for ADV.
 
Well, either way, we'll learn more about the CEP tests this week.  The
head virologist was wonderful and is very keen on learning more about the
disease and how it effects the ferret.  Though he says it will cost the
consumer more to test (because it's a pet) he is willing to work with us.
Hopefully this will be good news for us Canadians and will encourage more
of us to test our ferrets.
 
PLEASE, i can not stress enough to my fellow Canadian ferret lovers that
we do not live in a bubble and that the boarder between the USA and
Canada is not a barricade, it's an invisible line that ADV can (and now
HAS been proven to) cross.  PLEASE, test your ferrets.  Help prevent the
spread of ADV by knowing if your ferret is infected.  If you have any
questions or would like to know the status of the CEP test availability,
please contact me [log in to unmask]
 
Miss Randy Melanie Belair
President
The Ferret Aid Society
www.ferretaid.org
 
Join us for the IFC Ferret Aid 2006 Conference!
Book early, almost 1/2 sold out!!
http://www.ferretaid.org/events/ferret_aid_2006.html
[Posted in FML issue 5034]