>From:    Judith White <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: immunity against distemper
>The reason I posted to ask whether anyone had experienced a failure
>with their distemper vaccines is that my friend has done everything you
>outlined as a proper precaution against distemper, including a proper
>series of initial vaccinations, and it was not newly vaccinated ferrets
>that became ill.
 
No vaccine is 100% effective.  There was a pretty nasty distemper outbreak a
few years ago after a show.  Vaccinated ferrets died.  FROMM-D was the most
used vaccine back then.  We've talked about this with several vets.
Vaccines provide good protection from a very casual exposure but little can
stop a virus if the exposure is too concentrated for too long.  We haven't
had problems but we do kow of specific ferrets that got dstemper dispite
proper vaccination after a less than properly vaccinated kit brought it into
the house in a later incident.
 
>From:    Duck lite <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: shelter things
 
>If I had to keep every ferret over age five that has come into my shelter
>in the past six months, that would amount to well over 25 ferrets.
 
Apparently things are vastly different between your part of New Jersey and
our part of Virginia.  The vast majority of ferrets coming in to us are less
than three years old.  We have taken in exactly two ferrets over the age of
five.  One transferred into our shelter and one transferred out along with a
cage mate.  nds.
 
>What I was referring to was other shelters who have waiting lists.  I
>have been contacted by several, but they want young, healthy ferrets who
>can be adopted out singularly.
 
Well we pointed out that we did transfer out an older ferret to another
shelter with a younger cagemate.  That made it different in that being with
a cagemate is more important than staying in one house.
 
Mostly we agree but things are apparently really different in our
respective areas.
 
>From:    Sandi Ackerman <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Placing older ferrets
>I'm truly confused by this statement.  You've accused shelters who do not
>do fast turn arounds of being "collectors", perhaps your shelter is just
>lucky that it only get in one or two ferrets each year who fall under
>your above descriptions.
 
We have never had a turn in that could not be rehabilitated.  We above told
the story of our oldsters.  Maybe we are lucky.  We have never had a really
bad potential adopter either.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2253]