jonathan, ferrets for dummies is an excellent resource - for every
ferret owner regardless of whether they are new to ferrets or have
had them in their lives for decades. owning/reading it does not at
all apply to the situation at jenny's shelter!! it makes no sense at
all for you to recommend reading it with regard to this situation.

you obviously skipped over some of the information that was in her
post.

jenny clearly states:

- that the ferrets were exposed to distemper at the county shelter

- that neither ferret presented clear symptoms for weeks after they
  arrived

- that at least one worker there was not aware that ferrets are
  susceptible to canine distemper

- that the shelter was aware they had a distemper outbreak months
  beforehand (october 2008) and didn't inform anyone about it - most
  notably those who were adopting animals.

- that they acknowledged, to jenny, in february of 2009 that they had
  active distemper in the facility and it had been going on since
  october 2008.

- that the shelter continued to take animals in as well as adopt them
  out until the distemper was reported (to an entity other than the
  shelter) in february of 2009. the reporting of the distemper to
  someone other than the shelter operater caused the shelter to be
  shut down.

- that she quarrantined the new arrivals, as is her standard procedure.

even with doing the usual quarrantine - which is by putting the new
arrivals in a completely separate area that is closed off from the main
shelter area, it didn't matter at all when there were animals that were
full-blown with the disease. full blown with the disease and not yet
showing symptoms - so, no way for her to know that they were infected
(thanks to the idiots at the shelter not disclosing that they had an
active canine distemper situation at the facility).

jenny is well aware of the importance of vaccinating for distemper. she
has other pets besides ferrets and also runs the ferret shelter - which
is a hospice shelter; she does not adopt out.

all the animals in her care (personal as well as shelter) have their
shots (rabies and distemper) on a regular and timely basis. only one of
the shelter kids hadn't gotten the distemper shot upon arrival at the
shelter (her vet does rabies and distemper on separate visits). it
ended up being overlooked by the vet as well as her due to multiple
arrivals, who were severely ill, coming in within a short period of
time.

once it was evident what was going on, that one got her shot and any
others that were close to being due for yearly boosters were also given
their shots. blood was also pulled to get titer levels.

as it turned out, good titer levels and booster shots, on top of good
levels, didn't matter. at least not consistantly, that is. some of
those that were taken by the cd had high titers - well over 500 - and
got a booster and they still contracted the disease.

vaccinating is extremely important, yes!!! doing so doesn't always
matter, though, as we have learned from this situation.

quarranting newbies is also extremely important!!! doing so doesn't
always matter, though, as we learned from this situation.

there is no rhyme or reason when it comes to which ones contracted the
cd - some were young and some were older and some were healthy and some
had illnesses. and then you have the one from the pair that didn't
succumb to it even though he did have it...and his buddy suffered so
horribly and died from it.

doesn't make any sense at all.

research needs to be done. and some IS being done!

there's a study going on with regard to titer levels. get the info
about it here: http://www.ferret.org/news/07-april-titer_study.html
and please get your kids into the study!! the more people that get
involved and stay involved with it from year to year, the more inf
can be gathered and tracked and . and the more info there is, in
that study, the better it will be when the time comes to do clinical
testing with regard to what levels actually provide protection.

what information jenny has collected will also be vital when it comes
time to take the studies to the next level. her experience will provide
valuable information with regard to developing a good treatment for cd.

thanks, suki, for those links about the vitamin a treatment - i'll be
reading them :) that wasn't what was used in this situation, though.

this experience, as awful as it has been - and still is - for jenny,
is an opportunity for all of us to learn. shelter operators as well
as just regular ol' owners.

whenever you bring a newbie in, it's crucial to quarrantine; it's
crucial to get them updated on shots (both rabies and distemper);
it's crucial to take quarrantine measures to an extreme.

by that i mean, keeping the newbies in a separate room for at least
2 weeks and more like 3-4. washing any body parts that have been
exposed to the newbies (hands, arms, neck, face, hair, etc) as well
as changing clothes before interacting with the other animals in your
home/facility. keeping all bedding and litter materials completely
separate (doing different loads in the washer and disposing of litter
in separate bags). shutting down air intakes in the room the newbies
are in if you have a forced-air heat/a/c system. having a set of toys
that only the newbies will use. keeping food and water supplies
separate as well as dishes/bowls/bottles; same with medical supplies
(feeding syringes, measuring items for meds, etc).

all this not just to keep distemper at bay. there are SO many things
that can pass between the ferrets (cd and adv being two of the worst),
it's worth the extra effort to keep everyone (newbie as well as
original group) from catching something.

we all 'know' how bad distemper is...we've all heard that all our
lives. not many of us have actually seen it, though. i hadn't.

i saw pics of what it did to these little ones. just pics - and that is
absolutely more than enough. i never, ever, want to see this thing in
person. it's an absolute atrocity. not something i'd wish for anyone or
their pets (ferret, dog, cat, or any other type) to have to experience.

it's something any of us can come across, though. especially
shelters... you wonderful people are much more at risk than the
majority of us.

it takes a special person to do shelter work to begin with. to deal
with an outbreak like distemper (or adv, or coccidia) - and to come
through it with survivors - takes a rare individual. jenny is such, as
are most of you that run shelters.

what happened to jenny could happen to any one of us, regular owners or
shelters. at any time.

to make any negative statements to jenny, or anyone else who talks
about such an awful experience - which is done so that others are made
aware and with the hope that they will learn and modify what they do
so that they don't also have such an awful experience - is just plain
insulting. to the person the negativity is directed to as well as
everyone else on this list. even more so in this case because she DID
do everything right - what happened was absolutely through no fault of
hers!

we're here to do the best by our ferrets...one way to do that is by
learning from others experiences - both the good things and the awful
things.

jenny is to be commended for what she has done. she stood up and fought
canine distemper - and won, to boot. most people would crumble and just
put all the animals down because 'there's no treatment'.

she was willing to do whatever was necessary for her personal pets as
well as the shelter residents. she tried a treatment that was untested
in ferrets. and, even though it wasn't successful for some, it was for
a couple. and that's a good start for developing a treatment that will
always work.

jenny is that rare; true gem that's sometimes found amongst the stones -
shinely brightly for all to see.

joclyn

[Posted in FML 6389]