bronxelf wrote:
>The pet store gets kits every Thursday. They are all usually sold by
>Saturday(according to store staff).
Maybe usually, but it's not unusual for me to see them after that.
I was in that store Monday 3/23 and there were about 4 left. All looked
fine. On Thursday I went back to check the kits (I told you I would; I was
told all the ones in the store were new and had been delivered that day.
Went back Sunday 3/29 afternoon and there were 5 or so left; as before, all
looked fine. I spoke with a manager Thursday; no other kits have been sick
and they have gotten no other reports of sick ferrets from buyers.
So as far as I can tell, the kits in the store are *not* infected. BTW,
when I went in Sunday, I played with several of the kits and had them crawl
all over my shoulders. Then I went home and played with my own ferrets.
So if my ferrets are sick in a few days, I'll let everyone know, if not, can
we put this to rest? (Yes, that's how sure I am that the kits in the store
are fine. I would NOT do this if I thought otherwise. I often played with
the store kits before these posts started, and the ones they have in now
don't look any sicker than the ones they had before.)
>It also has an incubation period of 2-4 days, so the kits (like mine)
>may not show any signs until after they are taken from the store.
>Is it 2 days or 2-4? (Can someone who has actually dealt with ECE respond
>to this?)
From the ECE FAQ (old version, couldn't find my newer copy this am)
>The incubation period, according to Dr. Williams, is about 2 days and he
>feels there can be carrier animals for at least 4 months after the initial
>onset of disease.
(zen)
>>It really sounds like the kit was infected at the same time as Kender.
(bronxelf)
>How? Kender and Justin never left the house. I had contact with no other
>ferrets save my own and the kits at the store.
But you didn't go straight home either. You posted that you hit the vets
on the way home. However, when I questioned this as a possible infection
source, you stated (privately) that:
>my vet's receptionist has 17 ferrets, some of them elderly. I called
>immediately to make sure that *her* ferrets had not gotten ill. Nope.
>They were all healthy.
That tends to support the theory that it *wasn't* picked up at the vets
office. unless...
>I have heard that the symptoms are often missed in kits, and that the
>younger the kit, the lighter the symptoms. I also understand that
>sometimes they will *carry* the disease but not show signs actively until
>they are exposed to a healthy ferret.
Well, I'm going to play devils advocate here. If you want to go with the
'silent carrier' theory I can speculate on a few other possibilities.
a) the vets receptionist has ferrets which are silent carriers. (seems very
unlikely, but it's possibile) You picked it up from the visit to the vets
office, from or in spite of them, but they were unaffected by your visit.
b) your two existing ferrets were silent carriers and the stress of having
the newkit in the house made them go active. *They* infected it, not the
other way around.
It seems to be most likely that the kit was exposed at or near the time you
got it. If the incubation period is 2-4 days as you stated, (I'm not sure
how much leeway there is in 'about 2 days'). It is certainly logical to
think it may have been incubating when you got it. But then why aren't they
getting other customers calling them? If they sell 5 or more kits a week
and all the kits are sick, I'd expect them to get at least several calls and
not just one. If it tends to run very close to 2 days, IMO, it's a toss up
as to whether it was infected prior to arrival at the store, in the store
itself, or on the way home. I don't think it can be determined without more
information.
The available information doesn't point to a clear source. I know you want
to be able to point to someone or something and say 'there, that's where it
came from. Now let's do something about it!' Who wouldn't? But I'm not
sure that can be done here.
-Ilena Ayala
[Posted in FML issue 2264]
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