I am furious!!!!  I called and talked to Gov. Whitman's office and let them
know what my vet told me about ferrets and the transmission of rabies.  She
made note and transmitted me to the health department.  I talked to a very
obnoxious and self righteous vet who admitted he wasn't an exotic
knowledgeable vet and I repeated what my vet told me.  He informed me that
he didn't know any such thing and I told him maybe because he wasn't a
exotic animal vet he should at least call a knowledge vet to check with and
he said he does all the time and that he didn't know any such thing as the
ferrets ability to transmit rabies not good because how sick they get before
it gets to that point.  He made a reference to raccoons there that have
rabies (I guess they have an epidemic there).  I told him raccoons were from
a different family and were wild and the ferrets had been domesticated and
these were in a shelter not out in the wild and that two had had rabies
shots.  He said one had just been acquired recently and the imrab vaccine
says on it that even if they use it it's not approved for ferrets and that
they should be destroyed and checked for rabies anyway.  So I said you mean
then there really no reason to get your ferret vaccinated in NJ.  He said
oh, yes it's the law and any time anyone is bit we have to check for rabies.
So I said then your state says that you shouldn't touch the animal until you
buy it?  He said yes!  So I asked him as he interrupted me to but in and I
shut him up as I reminded him I was paying for the call, "Do you sleep well
when those test come back negative and some animal is now dead for nothing?"
He said "Yes".
 
I would like to know if any studies have been done on how many ferrets have
transmitted rabies to humans.  If it has been done can it be posted here,
and since I'm relatively sure it will be negligible to nil, we could send
information like this to these "vets", sorry I use that term loosely with
him because maybe I am use to real vets like we have on line and my own
wonderful vet.  If it hasn't already been done, who could do something like
that?
 
Excuse me but it was like talking to a ; can't think of anything I want to
downgrade that bad, not even a wall!!!!!!
 
Hope any of you had better luck and that those poor ferrets weren't put to
sleep.  Jerks come from all states I guess!
 
Vicky
[Posted in FML issue 1598]