Kim was upset about my reminder, though I heard from people in Denmark
itself that the advice I gave (which was from news stories and the CDC
info site) was exactly what their own media, public health officials,
physicians and vets are telling them to do now until the source of the
massive salmonella outbreak if found (with their own authorities saying
that they have narrowed to an animal-origin food source for this
particular outbreak, which is why I sent it).
Bill Gruber, FML Moderator, added:
>Moderator's note: Whatever the postion on raw feeding vs a commercial
>diet, I encourage anyone learning of a potential recall of EITHER to
>alert us. BIG
And I am sure that he and others will remember that I have posted each
applicable recall that I have encountered and where to find the info,
whether kibble, treat, materials for made at home food, and shortly
before the international news had the Danish salmonellosis story I even
put in a water recall.
For salmonella cooking is typically sufficient, which is also true
for some other forms of food poisoning that ferrets can get. For some
others, like the worst strain of E. coli it is best to just toss the
stuff and feed it to no one. That disease can cause permanent kidney
damage in ferrets, and certainly has killed both domestic ferrets and
BFFs.
Salmonella, on the other hand is something that ferrets usually fight
off well, but if a person wants to read how hard it is to treat when
it really takes off in a ferret pick up vet texts or read some of the
vet descriptions in the FML and FHL Archives. The second (most recent)
edition of _Biology and Diseases of the Ferret_ is particularly frank
on that score.
As i have said before: not food choice is perfect and none is horrible
as long as the ferrets get a balanced diet, and that can be done in
more than one way, but what IS important is knowing what can go wrong
so that the person can jump fast enough when that happens. With kibble
that means dental wear and perhaps a carbohydrate contribution to the
future formation of insulinoma, though that remains a hypothesis. For
raw feeding that means knowing that sometimes disease can occur. Even
in her short 2 or 3 (4?) years with ferrets Kim has found out that
possibility exists -- though luckily it is rare:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL1904
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL1911
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL1924
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL1960
and she also has experienced what was treat as insulinoma in an adopted
adult ferret, though that ferret lived only a very short while (2
months?) which makes me wonder if pathology afterward would have
instead found either carcinoma (the worst for the pancreas) or
lymphoma (second worst for the pancreas) there instead of insulinoma.
There were quite a lot (okay, really a LOT) of pers coms she and I had
through those, too. I recall a LOT of times that I was awake in hours
when I normally would have been sleeping because she needed immediate
help and reassurance.
So, if I take a little bit of offense at being scolded by someone
I gave all that time to for my saying no more than what I've been
told the Danish vets themselves are saying, then perhaps that can be
understood and pardoned. 'Nuff said on that score. Bill, if anyone
writes to "defend" me (as opposed to sending in hard info on how to
avoid and treat disease) could you thank them for me but mention that
can lead to unneeded FML fights, something I don't want to happen.
There is a new beef recall in the U.S. for a risk of the worst strain
of E. coli that I somehow missed getting (lost in the ether) which
someone else passed on to me after reading my post. For some reason
that one didn't arrive here as an alert:
<http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_022_2008_Expanded/index.asp>
Those who want to get such alerts -- about everything from beef to
bottled water to kibble can sign up at the FDA site to get alerts:
<http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_022_2008_Expanded/index.asp>
Oh, shoot, and going there I spot another beef one I didn't get yet
(also the worst E. coli strain):
<http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/R01_2008_Expanded/index.asp>
It just pays to know what can go wrong with any type of choice in life
so that a person can jump fast enough to minimize problems, and to stay
up on the related news. Right now in Denmark that includes the health
professionals for humans and critters advising cooking of meats,
poultry, etc. till they can find where that nasty strain of salmonella
is coming from. When they have figured it out then people can safely
return to earlier choices.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
[Posted in FML 6023]
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