Wow.
 
We're completely stunned by the response to Sydney's current problems with
our rabidly over-enthusiastic and under-informed local health authorities.
At one point yesterday, we were getting 10-15 emails per hour, and our
server was warning us to delete messages before they did it for us.  I
stopped counting at one hundred, but there's been many more responses
since.  I can't begin to thank everyone for their concern, support, advice
and hard data to shove in the faces of the ignorant clods that are putting
us through this.  I literally cannot begin to thank you all individually -
at my typing speed, you could expect a response sometime next year!  For
those who have recommended that Sydney should "disappear" for a while, you
may be interested to know that in a rather startling coincidence, Sydney
does in fact appear to have exited the premises.  I suppose she made a
break for it in all the excitement.  I expect she'll reappear once all the
commotion dies down.
 
Just to clear the air on behalf of the nurses from the Antenatal Community
Care Program who were bit, we want to clarify the point that they were just
following their rules for the procedure to follow if bit by any animal
while in a patient's home.  I expect the nurse who didn't tell us she'd
been bitten didn't find out Syd had drawn blood until she took her sock off
at home.  As I'll explain, they're as much victims as we are.
 
The real problem stems from the Calgary Regional Health Authority's
Communicable Disease Control office, who appear to be following a very
outdated rulebook.  Having finally tracked down the woman (Bev) who spoke
to my wife initially on Thursday and spoken to her myself, I can certainly
understand why JoAnne was so upset after the conversation.  The woman was
very closed minded, abrupt, and as I proceeded to discover, almost
completely uninformed about rabies in general, ferrets in particular, and
even about their own powers of enforcement.  Bev has even contacted the
nurses who were bitten to recommend that they begin rabies treatments.
She didn't know that the agency she was going to refer the case to doesn't
handle ferrets.
 
Apparently, under their guidelines, ferrets are to be treated as wild
animals.  Insane, of course, but believe it or not, in this particular
situation this may turn out to be a good thing.  As "game animals", ferrets
fall under the jurisdiction of the federal agency Agriculture Canada.  I
got through to the assistant to the senior veterinarian for Agriculture
Canada just as the vet was leaving the office for the day.  She got the
pertinent information from me, then put me on hold to discuss it with the
veterinarian.  According to her, the conversation went something like this:
 
"When did the bites happen?" - "Christmas Day and two weeks ago."
"And the ferret is still alive?" - "Yes."
"Then the ferret didn't have rabies.  If I were the ferret, I'd bite the
stupid bastard myself." Presumably, he meant the official from Communicable
Diseases.  I asked if I could have that in writing.
 
So, it seems that if the federal authorities have anything to say about it,
nothing will happen.  The catch is that we have to make sure that the local
officials don't have an opportunity to send just Syd's head to the federal
officials.  I understand from our vet that the Alberta Veterinary Medical
Association follows the 10 day quarantine period, but I have to confirm
that on Monday.
 
... 24 hour interruption ...
 
Had to take JoAnne to the hospital.  Her blood pressure was up for some
reason.
 
Anyway, I've found out who the Medical Officer of Health for the Calgary
Regional Health Authority is.  He's the direct counterpart of the official
from Edmonton who recently changed the quarantine rules for the Capital
Health Authority there, after a lot of prodding and lobbying from Barb
Gustafson of the Alberta Ferret Society.  Barb is sending a copy of the
compendium to him, along with the substantiating research.  I am also about
to email him with all of the information I have, along with a list of
experts (including the vet from Agriculture Canada and Charles Rupprecht,
Chief of the Rabies Section at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta)
who have expressed a willingness to answer any questions he may have.
Failing that, I have asked that he intervene on JoAnne's behalf simply
because of the danger all of this stress poses to her and our baby in the
middle of a high-risk pregnancy, and have authorized him to speak to our
obstetrician if he still has any questions.
 
Once again, we can't possibly express our thanks for the support and
willingness to get involved expressed by everyone.  At the moment, we're
going to try for the "soft sell" with the decision makers involved, but if
that doesn't work, we'll fight dirty.  We'll go to the media (JoAnne won't
have to work too hard to look worthy of sympathy, being 7 months pregnant),
we'll start petitions, and I hope we can count on everyone to help us keep
the fax machines of every official involved running 24 hours/day and their
voice mail and email boxes overflowing.  In that event, I'll supply fax
#'s/phone #'s/email addresses to everyone on Earth.
 
Thanks,
Tim, JoAnne, "Junior",
& the furry contingent:
Tanus - the one that doesn't bite anyone but us
Sydney - the one that bites everyone but us (wherever she may be!)
[Posted in FML issue 2573]