Well, quarantines aren't much use against ECE, since most of the time
contagious ferrets won't have obvious symptoms.  If a ferret comes in
oozing green slime, of course they're quarantined and checked out!  So far,
we're almost certainly ECE-negative, although it's entirely possible that
we've just had a bunch of ferrets that have been exposed in the past.
We've never had an identifiable case.
 
How do we keep from getting ECE?  We ask people surrendering lots of
questions, and keep our fingers crossed.  Figure it'll probably happen
eventually.
 
I spoke with my vets about Fervac and found that they've been seeing a
much, much higher reaction percentage lately.  They theorized that this
could be a bad batch of vaccine.  Every ferret we didn't premedicate had
some level of reaction; most vomited a bit then went to sleep, one or two
needed medical attention, only one was life-threatening at all.  These
reactions were occuring a solid 45 minutes to an hour after the injection.
We did pre-meds on the last few with injectable Benadryl and had no
problems.  Next week I have to bring in two girls with a history of vaccine
reactions, so I'll keep you posted.  (They also have a history of abuse,
and wow do they bite HARD when they're scared.  And they're scared when
they're held too tightly or scruffed.  My vets have been warned and I think
they're going to flip a coin for the honor.)
 
The number of ferrets we've taken in is too small to use to draw any kind
of conclusions--this has just been our experience lately.  Until four or
five months ago, we had never seen a reaction to Fervac.  My vets also
called United about protocols and said they were something less than
helpful.
 
>If you find a tick already embedded DO NOT PULL IT OUT (the head may
>remain behind and lead to infection).  Douse the area with Vaseline and
>the tick should disengage on its own in order to breathe...
 
Ticks will not suffocate if you cover them in vaseline.  Touching them with
a lighted match doesn't work either.  The truth is, you don't need to worry
about getting the head out as much as most people think.  The approved
method for tick removal is to grasp the tick near the head tweezers or your
fingers, hold firmly at a slight angle to your skin, and pull it steadily
out.  Don't jerk it out.  The head will almost always come out.  If it
doesn't, it's no worse than any other organic splinter.  You can pick it
out with tweezers or just leave it there to decompose if you want.  It's
not pleasant, but it's not as hazardous as most people think.
 
I live in tick country (Maine--grew up in a swamp, next to a lake, even)
and have dealt with them forever.  If you have concerns about removing
ticks, talk to your doctor--the human kind.  Or pick up a pamphlet on lyme
disease.  The method is the same across species--we've had to remove plenty
of ticks from ferrets before, especially those that come in as strays.  One
poor guy had about a dozen on him.
 
Jen and the Crazy Business
http://home.maine.rr.com/tesseract
[Posted in FML issue 3036]