From: Ferret Mailing List <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Ferret List Issue 275 > 1) She has heard nthing official about it - in fact the only thing she heard > was one article that someone forwarded to her via Compuserve. I dropped > off some hardcopy postings for her as she was moderately interested. From what I understand, it takes at least a month for the word to spread about these things. And I started posting things about it here approximately two days after it was discovered. (See, ferret clubs are useful as well as a whole lot of fun! :-) ) > 2) She expressed some surprise at the apparent extent of it and also mentione d > that she would thing that people who go to ferret shows are better educate d > than the "average" ferret owner and would therefore have had their critter s > innoculated. What you have to realize is that this is the time of year when all the babies are born. Kits cannot be vaccinated until they are 7-8 weeks old, and the mother's milk only protects them for 1 - 1 1/2 weeks. So they are *HIGHLY* susceptible during the interim. Also, even after they are vaccinated, until they are about 3 - 4 months old, the vaccinations wear off fairly quickly. It is the kits who are the primary victims in all this, and since all the breeders are bringing their kits to the shows to sell them... Also, the statistics are slightly misleading. About 50 ferrets had died last I heard. An Ohio breeder, Linda Harrah (sp?), had 35 die, and 5 more were going to (I don't know if those 5 were included in the 50 or not). Then there are a handful of people who have had some die. My vice president (Delaware) has had one die, and another that is probably going to. She had a call yesterday from a lady in NY who just had two die. And I don't know about the other cases. Linda Harrah had a population of 60 ferrets, most of which were kits. So she was a prime target for this. I'm not sure, but I think that she's where this whole mess started. The more I think about her situation the madder I get. I feel sympathy for her that she lost 40 ferrets, I know how heartbroken she must be, but she could have stopped this thing from spreading so far, and didn't. Her first ferret died on May 22nd, after she had attended the Metro show on May 16th. All she had to do was make a few calls and the Rochester show and the MD fun fest would never have taken place, or they could have at least been more careful about only allowing vaccinated animals. Noone even found out about it until the end of last week!!! My vice president's ferrets were probably exposed at Rochester, and my girls were definately exposed at the MD fun fest. And there were also several groups of kits at the MD fun fest, and more than likely at Rochester as well (I didn't go to Rochester or the Metro show). I know I probably shouldn't be this mad at her, I'm sure it wasn't malicious, but I can't help thinking that the vast majority of this could have been avoided by a simple phone call!!! For those of you who know Cindy, my vice president, it was Stonewall who died. He was a 1 year old silver from Kevin Costa. Cindy is sure that Kevin told her he had given Stonewall his full series of baby shots. But Cindy has not verified that yet. Her new kit, Butterscotch, a champagne/cinnamon kit (he's a few months old, I'm not sure exactly) is the one who is currently ill, she's currently laboring over the decision to put him down. He's got a puffy rectum, and has grainy dirt under his eyes and nose, but he's still as playful as can be. So it's a very hard decision for her to make. He's been showing symptoms for 5 days, and is currently in isolation. Cindy is being extraordinary careful about only handling her other ferrets before she handles him, and then cloroxing the bathroom after letting him out and immediately taking a shower. She's gone through 8 gallons of clorox during this thing, and has ruined all of her carpets and clothes. It's very hard psychologically, too. Although we all feel terrible about what she's going through, we essentially have to treat her like she has the plague. None of us can go over to help her out. When she goes to the vet, she cannot let anyone touch her, or her ferret. She just holds him up, and has the vet look at him from a distance. This is truly a terrible disease! Stonewall, her ferret who has already died, was showing symptoms for about 3 weeks. And, actually, was not diagnosed until after he had died. Cindy suspected it, especially when he lost all the fur on his chin (no "rash" though), but was told that she was probably just overreacting. He had had problems with his scent glands in the past, so they thought that he just had infected scent glands (which he did, they now suspect that the swollen rectum pinched them off, causing them to become infected. Before they thought that the swollen rectum was caused by the infected scent glands.) He was actually scheduled for surgery to remove the scent glands, but they never had time to do that. He became weak, and all of his other symptoms were just thought to be that the infection from his scent glands was in his system. Then one day he Cindy woke up to find that he had a discharge from his eyes and nose. She immediately called the vet, and the soonest they could fit her in was 2 hours later. By that time Stonewall was nearly comatose. She took him in, and within 1/2 an hour they called her to say that Stonewall had died. I think it was that night that Cindy found out about the distemper problem, and called her vet to let them know that was what it really was. So, even good vets can't always detect these things! --------------------- Well, the vaccine arrived, and I gave my girls their vaccinations. (for those who don't recall, I was slightly nervous about that) It was actually pretty easy. Note: I am now going to describe how to give a ferret a shot, for those who are interested. If you are squeamish about these things, you may want to skip the next paragraph... Since we've been talking so much about this recently, let me give directions on how to give a distemper shot. I don't recommend that you do it yourself unless you are *VERY* confident that you know how, but I'm afraid some of you will try. So I would rather give directions and have you do it right, than risk the health of your ferrets. So, here's how to administer a vaccination: First of all, its easiest if you can find someone to help you. Have them prepare the ferret by disinfecting an area between their shoulder blades with rubbing alcohol. While they are doing that, you can be preparing the injection, which comes in two small bottles, one of which contains the freeze dried distemper vaccine and another which contains a diluent. First wipe the tops of the bottles with rubbing alcohol. Then insert the syringe into the diluent and pull it all out into the syringe. Take that, and insert it into the vaccine and gently shake it to dissolve (you can leave the needle in the bottle while doing this, don't expose the needle to the air any more than absolutely necessary). Once mixed, pull all of the solution into the syringe. Leaving the needle in the bottle, turn it upside-down (needle end up), and tap it to make all the bubbles rise to the top. Then push the plunger until all the bubbles are out. Now have your assistant hold your ferrets head and back end (warn them that they will have to hold very firmly, the ferret will more than likely squirm at the needle prick and when you start injecting), it is easiest if you do this on a hard surface, such as a table or the floor. If you use a soft surface (i.e. sofa or bed) the ferret will be able to get his/her feet free and thus be able to move more. Pull up the skin between the shoulder blades to form a sort of triangle about the ferret's back. Take the needle, holding it perpindicularly to the ferret, and slide it right under the skin. (Note: the skin of a ferret is thick, you will have to use a fair amount of force to pierce it.) Be very careful not to pierce the muscle, this is a subcutaneous (under the skin) injection. If the ferret is squirming, you may want inject it fast to get it over with. Otherwise, you can do it a little slower. There usually won't be any blood, but if there is, hold a cotton ball on it for a few minutes. While giving the injection, comfort the ferret, expect him/her to squirm, and don't get cross with him/her for doing so. Have some children's benadryl on hand, if the ferret exibits any signs of allergy (runny eyes/nose) give him/her a ferret sized dose (about .25 ml give or take, depending on the size of the ferret). If the ferret exibits any serious side effects, call your vet immediately. Do *NOT* attempt to vaccinate your ferrets yourself unless you feel 99.9% confident that you know how to do it. Only attempt this after watching it done, by a vet or other knowledgeable person, a few times. If you feel almost confident enough, ask your vet if you can bring your ferret in and they can talk you through it. Most vets should do this, their primary concern should be the health of the animals, not their profits. ------------------ All three of mine (well, two are mine, and I have a boarder with me for the summer) took it very well. The squirmed quite a bit, especially when I started to inject the vaccine. Not so much when I pricked them. Afterward Percy laid down about 2 feet from my legs and glared at me for about 15 minutes. Every time I reached to touch her she would jump out of the way, and then come right back to the same spot, lay down, and commence to glaring again. When I did manage to pick her up, she would squirm to get down right away (she'll usually let me "scritch" her for a few minutes). She was making me feel pretty guilty. (This is very abnormal behavior from her.) Fortunately Bree and Miniver (the boarder) took the whole thing in stride, and forgave me right away. :-) - Nancy Nancy Hartman CIS graduate student [log in to unmask] U. of Delaware President and founder, Delaware Valley Ferret Club Owner of Percy & Bree [Posted in FML issue 0276]