>"Most people aren't aware that ferrets can spread rabies in their saliva."
 
Sukie commenting on the above statement:
 
>Now I can NOT even BEGIN to IMAGINE Mary EVER writing such a thing.  Could
>people who know Mary talk with her to find out how this happened, and why
>her name has been damaged this way?  I am sure that Mary is well aware
>that this is grossly inaccurate
 
Excuse me.  Guess there is something new I don't know.  (A first???
Heh?!!)
 
Rabies ***IS*** spread by saliva.  So the first statement, no matter who
said it, is true.
 
Another name for rabies is 'Hydrophobia', a misnomer, but descriptive if
one has ever seen an animal in the latter stages of rabies....it foams at
the mouth and has saliva pouring out, causing hydrophobia in those seeing
it close up, as animals at this stage of the disease are extremely
aggressive.  They bite and the rabies bug is transfer to the raw wound via
the saliva.
 
What IS misleading about the opening statement is....ferrets just don't get
rabies..at least in the numbers that would give credence to that statement,
as applied to ferrets.  There has been what, 2 recorded cases of actual
rabies' infected domestic ferrets in the past 20 years or so??
 
That makes the opening line very misleading...a true statement but does not
apply to our fuzzies, per se.
 
For our ferrets!
 
MC, The Rude One
(With Garret, Snorkle and Tuzigoot.  In spirit, Bubba and Billy-Bob)
[Posted in FML issue 2793]