Carolyn--
I wanted to mention something about the babies in petstores.  You said
something to the effect that the little ones are unlikely to have distemper
or ECE.  I think that may depend on the region where you live and which
distributors may stand between the breeders and the pet stores.  In the
Dallas/Fort Worth area Marshall ferrets are almost exclusively distributed
through a single distributor.  This distributor has been accused in the
past of also taking ferrets from other sources, mixing them in with the
Marshall's, and selling them all with Marshall guarantee cards.  Most new
baby ferrets or young ferrets here that are brought into non-ECE households
promptly result in ECE in the other ferrets.  We think it is likely that
ECE is being shared either in the stores or (more likely) at the
distributor.  So I just wanted to caution folks that things may be
different where they live than where you are!
 
Debra
[Posted in FML issue 2593]