From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2010-08-19 20:42:26 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] mycobacteria reminder
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>, Ferret Mailing List <ferret-l@LISTSERV.FERRETMAILINGLIST.ORG>
I have heard off list that some people are panicking about this. That
is not a reasonable response.
Yes, the distributor sells to a wide area (Pacific NW, Canada, Asia)
BUT THE PERCENTAGE OF SICK FERRET KITS SOUNDS LIKE IT WAS LOW! That
means that vets need to be made aware but panic is a destructive
response. I do NOT know if the problem is still going on, or if it is
past but is one more thing which any breeders and vets need to know
can go wrong for kits.
Historically, pretty well every major breeder has encountered the
problem of having some sort of serious illness in a small percentage
of the kits sold at times, and so far most of them have taken the
constructive and healthy response of addressing the problem with
veterinary attention. Hopefully, this time the involved parties are
as prompt and successful on this score as their competitors have been
in the past with other illnesses. I don't know because I have not
heard any update from the breeder (though some address problems
quietly, while others take the more logical marketing approach of
tackling the health needs and then saying, "Yes, we had a problem but
we addressed it in such and such as way and have instated such and
such precautions to reduce any risk of it happening again.")
Truth be told, I can not think of ANY serious ferret illness which has
not caused certain people to panic (often the same people) and then
talk themselves into seeing or assuming things which are not there,
and working up other people who also are inclined to panic. That can
really twist what vets and other experts have said, I am afraid. It
happened with the regionally localized first highly fatal version of
coccidia; it happened with DIM; it happened with people confusing
normal and healthy immune responses to vaccines with vaccine
reactions; it happened with the new variant of ECE; it happened with a
whole range of new and unusual things. Heck, I even can recall
someone (remaining unnamed) who assumed that a ferret who probably had
influenza had SARS after she read of studies on it and of SARS being
in a totally different continent. A few people truly were
encountering those illnesses (except for SARS) in their pet ferrets
but the numbers were small, just as they are with the mycobacteria now.
Strangely, that level of people working themselves up does not --
usually -- seem to happen with serious and more easily encountered
illnesses like canine distemper, or food poisoning... There also has
not been that response to some more common and fatal illnesses like
some coccidia variants even when they were new illnesses. I have no
idea how to tell which illnesses will cause a core of people to panic
and spread their panic with inaccurate assumptions attached.
BTW, Dr. Matti Kiupel is at Michigan State and is in a wonderful,
wonderful group, the Ferret Health Group, there which has made huge
advances in the information on ferret illnesses and needs everyone's
thanks:
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
He is not at Michigan University.
HERE IS MY REQUEST: I know that a number of you are on other lists
and I have heard that there is panic on some of those. Please, help
those people get a more balanced and accurate view of what is going
on. Remember that statements from those who have encountered it say
that this does NOT seem to be highly contagious if it even is
contagious from ferret to ferret (since some people have had others
living with the affected ferrets and have had no spread it might not
be but I have not learned enough from reputable sources to know which
is the accurate statement).
Instead, some of the arriving kits with very, very bad coughs have had
this and if the treating vet thinks that is a possibility then
specimens should go to Michigan State or to NW Zoopath.
This disease is one to take seriously when encountered but it is not a
situation which involves high numbers of ferrets. Heck, any kit with
an extreme cough -- from ANY type of cause -- needs to be taken
seriously, tested and treated, NO MATTER WHAT ILLNESS the kit has:
influenza (the common one), pneumonia, JL, mycobacteria, etc. DO NOT
ASSUME THAT ANY COUGHING KIT HAS THIS, and don't freak out. The
probability of this is much lower than the more common illnesses.
That's it. So, TAKE A DEEP BREATH! Heck, take ten deep breaths!
There is no constructive reason to respond to such new things with
huge panic and even less to spread such panic. Sharing facts in fine,
but this sounds like in some lists it has reached a point where people
are very much misinterpreting the numbers involved or otherwise
causing panic.
POINTER: few new illnesses involve large number of ferrets. If they
do then the veterinarians will say that many are involved (as happened
with the original ECE after a while), and that sort of announcement
has NOT happened in relation to this illness. I guess that those of
us who get used to such disease announcements tend too often to not
say that because we assume people realize it. The reality is that it
can be very hard to predict what will send some people into panic
spirals, I'm afraid.
BTW, in keeping with the FHL rules the breeder name will not be in
future posts on the topic unless there is a special reason to do so,
for example, if the breeder announces what it has done and is doing to
address this and to reduce the chances of it happening in the future.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
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