>Turns out they had a convenient loophole: the Compendium says that a "stray >or unwanted dog, cat or ferret" may be killed for testing immediately. It's not an entirely unreasonable loophole. With strays, the potential for exposure is higher, and the vaccination status is unknown. Another unknown is the animals 'normal' behavior, which is what the earliest part of a quarantine needs to compare it's current behavior against. Animals developing rabiesdon't always become tame, nor do they always become nasty. What is noticed sometimes is a *change* from their normal personality; a gentle animal may stop being gentle; a nasty animal may become calm. When a person is going to start rabies treatment, the sooner the better. In an ideal situation, you know right away whether to start treatment or not, rather than even ten days later. With ferrets, the animal would be dead well within the quarantine period if it was capable of transmitting the virus at the time of the bite. It would be nice if they let if have a few days to try to locate the owner though. Offering to be a local quarantine area is a great way to encourage local animal control to follow the Compendium recommendations. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a national vaccination database? Microchip a ferret (or dog or cat), scan them at rabies vaccination time and input the rabies vaccination expiration date (one year for ferrets, varies 1-3 years by vaccine with other animals) into the national database. When the animal is picked up by the shelter, imagine if not only can they track the owner, they can look at the vaccination status and have it handy even if the owner's contact info is outdated. (So if a ferret was vaccinated within the past year, and since the last trip to the vet the ferret changed hands or the owner moved, they still know the animal is vaccinated!) >[Moderator's note: I don't understand how it's such as "taxpayer expense" >to house a ferret for 10 days compared to the cost of taking it to a vet, >killing it, packing the remains in ice, shipping it, doing the expensive >assay test, transmitting the results... BIG Oh sure, confuse the issues with the facts! :-) Actually it might be more of an issue of whose budget it comes out of-the local shelter would probably pay for a quarantine, but I'd guess the state would pay for a kill and test as a public health issue. If a kill and test keeps someone off the vaccine series, it is easily the cheaper option. A full post exposure vaccination for rabies costs about $1000 (cost varies somewhat by the weight of the patient). >This rabies compendium, is it for the US only or can us Canadians give it >to our vets too? It's meant as a guideline for US Agencies, but heck, if you don't have separate guidelines in Canada (anyone know if there are separate ones for Canada? I don't remember seeing any but I haven't gone looking for them either.) Queens University Geographic Information Systems Laboratory might know, they have rabies info and stuff on the annual international rabies meeting at their website, try http://www.gs.queensu.ca I haven't been to the site recently though. Locally, you could ask your vet or public health official what the national guidelines for Canada are based on. If you find out let the rest of us know! -Ilena Ayala Rabies Resources for Ferret Lovers are at: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ilena/rabies.htm [Posted in FML issue 2306]