The post on that poor starving ferret made was so upsetting.
 
Why was the ferret caged into that doghouse?  How long had it been there
without food and water?
 
I'm so sorry this poor little one died because of ignorance.  Ignorance is
deadly.
 
First off, once your post-exposure treatment was started, the ferret should
have been quarantined for 10 days.  In the rabies shedding studies, the
test ferrets showed symptoms within that time period.
 
We had a similar incident with a cat here in our area.  The cat was a stray
and bit someone but the people in the area didn't want the cat to be killed
and so the cat was quarantined for 10 days.  The compendium does read that
strays should be killed and tested so that may be why the health official
said the ferret should be killed.  Bottom line is though, if you claimed
the ferret and didn't want it to be killed, it should have been
quarantined.
 
I've been bitten by animals of unknown history several times and one
moderately severe bite was on the side of my neck.  I waited out the
quarantine period without reporting the incident or taking post-exposure
treatment.  My fear was that the local authorities would kill the dog so
I chose not to report it.  I fully knew the risks at the time but I also
knew that I couldn't handle having an innocent animal killed.  This may be
viewed as risky by some, but it was my decision to make and I made the one
I could live with.
 
I've been bitten by ferrets that were abuse, auction and breeder rescues.
Never once did I fear rabies because the ferrets were reacting normally
(and yes we've found wounds on some of them).  Fear, hunger, pain can cause
any animal to react violently, even humans.
 
Too many ferrets have needlessly been killed because of the rabies issue.
 
I'm sorry for that little one that experienced something so terrible,
possibly inflicted by humans, to make him fear humans so strongly and
also for his death by humans.  sigh.
 
I'm not insensitive to the issue of the biting and fear of rabies, but once
the shots were started, the ferret should have been quarantined and had it
not shown symptoms in the 10 day quarantine period, there would have been
no need to kill this poor ferret.
 
As a side note, we were called out to rescue a baby ferret found in a barn.
The ferret turned out to be a weasel.  To protect the animal, we made sure
it was not able to bite anyone (it didn't even attempt to).  In any rescue,
it is a good idea to not put yourself or anyone else in a situation where
they may get bitten.  A hard lesson to be learned in this situation.
 
Hugs to all. tle
Troy Lynn Eckart
Ferret Family Services
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~sprite/ffs.html
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Haven/5481/
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[Posted in FML issue 2887]