Troy Lynn wrote: >56 positive cases of rabies have been confirmed in Kansas, including 3 >in Sedgwick County and 2 in Butler County. Right now the "hot spots" >for rabies in Kansas are Riley, Polk, Clay, and Washington counties in >northeast Kansas, and Gray and Ford counties in southwest Kansas. There have also been a lot of wild animals with rabies and canine distemper within New England and the Middle Atlantic states. A milder than normal winter allowed vector species to survive even when the sick individuals were quite compromised. If your ferrets are over-due for their vaccinations be sure to get them, don't forget that kits need an entire series of canine distemper shots -- not just the first ones that some breeders give -- as well as their rabies shots once they are old enough. If you have a ferret who has reacted to multiple vaccines and you decide to not try the new Merial Purevax one then be careful to skip outdoor walks and such. If someone panics and tries to cause problems for your ferret use the link to the Compendium of Animal Rabies Control at http://geocities.com/sukieslist . The three sections of this compendium should also be gotten to your local emergency rooms and local health officials for best safety for ferrets as well as cats and dogs. > http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~sprite/kdhe.html I like the way that Troy Lynn did that for Kansas. It would be good if state clubs did that for their own states as well -- could save a number of ferrets. I don't have a lot of free time but can help folks locate their state public health vets in charge of rabies policy if that help is needed. What may be fastest if your vet doesn't have the listing in the AVMA Directory will be to go back through the back FML posts from 1998 when I spoke/exchanged mails with each state's public health vet(s) in charge of rabies policy. The individuals may have changed in some cases, but the addresses and phone numbers may be especially useful. To find the FML archives go to the address found within the header. If need my help don't be surprised if it take s a little bit of time due to my schedule. >Thanks Sandy, you sure gave me hope as a new 2 ferret owner, on the other >hand,has anyone listed where all the Shelters are? It's in the files available from the FML, or you can go to the files at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-List I was asked if I was disappointed that the Reader's Digest article used was the one that interviewed the AFA person instead of the one that interviewed Bruce Williams and me. Yes and no. What's most important is that there was one. The bit of disappointment (which is more than off-set by them actually having a ferret article -- an important step forward in the popular press) is because I wasn't aware that there were alternative articles that could be run instead. What the heck, it's good publicity for ferrets and that's what we all want and need. Guess I felt like I had some egg on my face since I didn't know about alternative articles. That's okay; just life. I thought that it was really neat that the AFA folks also came to the same conclusion that Bruce Williams and I did -- that if the low numbers for the ferret population were given then the foes have no chance of saying, "But the population numbers may be lower..." when the low per-capita serious-bite numbers are mentioned anywhere. It's funny, their article covered many of the same essential points that the one that Bruce and I were interviewed for covered, so I wound up happy about the fine content. Isn't it great that the popular press more and more is getting accurate and fair info about ferrets and sharing it? As many old timers can attest we've all had a long haul getting to this point. Hopefully, there will be more and more such articles everywhere through the years ahead. [Posted in FML issue 3766]