>Wondering, and this might sound silly, but, if I order something or buy
>something from a place that has lots of ferrets there, and one or more
>of them has a communicable disease can the item or letter that comes in
>the mail possibly...
 
Not a stupid question at all.  It depends on the infection, if the
illness is being shed at that time (not all diseases are shed all the
time), and the item.  For some types of infection, yes, things can be
carried that way.  The possible length of time that an infection may
be viable on an item varies as well.  Remember, one way that ECE has
passed has apparently been on people's clothing.
-----
 
Liver function tests are kind of funny with ferrets.  Except for
bilirubin there are questions with interpretation.  Read this for
detailed info:
Confusion and Controversy in Interpreting Ferret Clinical Pathology Data
in http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
-----
 
Toots still has a mass in his abdomen but it is much smaller.  It could
be a node that has gone up temporarily, or something not to be concerned
about, or there's a low chance that it's something we need to get out
now, but not being sure he'll be having an ultrasound on a non-emergency
basis.  It's well defined but small and has shrunken.  Feels like a B-B
in there but smaller... The symptoms Scooter had are gone.  He had marked
constipation and then runs with vomiting.  If it was all from an
infection it hit him with a real bang; he almost collapsed due to
blockage from a few very dried out pieces of feces that later came out
with projectile diarrhea.
 
Sevie has her lower part of her heart rate back to 60 after the increase
in her aminophylline.  She'll likely go in when Tootie does and will have
a follow-up EKG.  Her meds are really giving her a life right now.  She
has no pain at all though she seems to be aware that she tires out and
gets cool if she goes too wild, and has become good at moderating and
monitoring herself.  I hope that when I finally have a final medical
problem that I can do even half as well and happily...
 
BTW, for those who can use it: there is info on treating A/V Heart Node
Block (very rare) in ferrets in
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
and info on most effectively treating a much more common heart problem
in ferrets (cardiomyopathy) in
http://www.miamiferrets.org/fhc
 
It is NOT unusual for vets to not know about the medications for these
problems.  For instance, it is not usual for vets to only treat the
immediate threat of ascites with Lasix when cardiomyopathy is present
and not to know about things like Enacard, Digoxin, CoQ10, and other
approaches to mix and match.
 
It is also not unusual for owners to not know what additional things must
be diligently avoided and to NOT give ferrets things like true licorice,
ginseng, or other things that absolutely need to be avoided when
circulatory disease is present.
-----
 
Bot flies: interesting info to learn!  I'll bet I'm not the only one who
appreciated the learning opportunity.  My only experience with bot flies
was in an Amazon Basin jungle when a researcher I was there with got one
in an arm.  (Believe it or not, that is why folks take cigarettes (Yuck!)
along -- to use the nicotene to force the maggot to emerge enough to
hopefully remove it completely enough to avoid infection.  That is a very
so-so method and is prone to not working well, requiring later medical
care for bad infections.  It's much better to be somewhere where quick
minor surgery can just remove it cleanly and fully.
-----
 
Mary, some other folks have also gotten the form reply that includes:
 
>Please recognize that the animal used in the commercial is not real --
>it is a puppet so every intent was made to respect the rights of real
>animals.
 
Verizon seems to have two form replies right now about this.
 
I understand that a few people here don't mind the ad, but those people
seem to very much be in the minority.  The ad was in bad taste and
Verizon made a major mistake in running it; the folks making such
decisions should have done their homework and should have realized that
with about 7 million pet ferrets in the U.S. they were taking a stupid
risk.  The FML is pretty representative of ferret folks so that ad is
going to be costing Verizon.  Anyone who has had to work to combat bad
anti-ferret legislation, to help dumped ferrets, to educate the public
knows the damage such a widely-run ad can do.
[Posted in FML issue 3874]