From: Sukie Crandall
>Amy, although ferrets, dogs and cats are raw meat eaters they DO acquire
>mycobacterium, E. coli, and Salmonella from raw meat.  Probably most
>don't get those; probably most who do fight them off, BUT the compromised
>ones can get infections which greatly complicate their care.  Vets
>repeatedly talk about such animals they have treated.  It seems to be
>one of the situations in which there isn't a huge amount published but a
>number of clinicians and pathologists (like the three or four quoted the
>other day) say a whopping, 'Oh, YEAH.  We have run into that in practice
>and it isn't fun."
 
Of course they can and do acquire those, it is alot rarer than people
think and alot of times it is assumed that was the cause for the animals
problems because something was found and that must be the cause of the
problem.  You could culture a healthy kibble animal and could possibly
find traces of any of those, same with a healthy raw fed animal.  They
have different digestion systems than people.  I think the blame is too
quickly assigned in some cases.  There has also been cases where
salmonella was blamed and if not for an autopsy that would of been
assumed the cause of death when it was something completely unrelated.  I
will agree that if someone has a sick or comprised animal that is not the
time to be offering raw or any different foods.  But people should not be
scared into not trying something that may be better for their companions.
 
On a slightly related topic I will toss in my wonderings on the "mystery
disease".  This is just me speaking out loud, nothing to back this up,
but I wouldn't be surprised if "we" didn't play a role in this disease
by compromising our ferrets by not feeding them correctly and
overvaccinating them.  The weakening of their overall health is being
passed down generation to generation and add that to questionable
breeding practices and it doesn't surprise me to hear of something like
this appearing.  Again, just me thinking out loud, and I seem to be
getting more cynical as I get older <g>, but I think man has a way of
taking nature and skewing it to suit our needs and it seems to be more
apparent in many ways that future generations are going to pay for that.
Just something to think about.
 
  ~Amy~
[Posted in FML issue 4409]