From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2012-02-20 20:05:32 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Re: Lifespan question
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Not vaccinating, or not vaccinating sufficiently is a painful topic. Just look at the locations (those with went public and those which did not for those who know them) who lost dozens of ferrets this last year to Canine Distemper which could have been prevented. Furthermore, look at the people who lost ferrets just due to unproven accusations before work was done to improve the knowledge about how rabies behaves in ferrets and the resulting improvements to the Compendium for Animal Rabies Control. (States vary on when and if they allow quarantine for unvaccinated ferrets, cats, or dogs.)
Luckily, there IS an option for canine distemper: TITERS CAN AND SHOULD BE DONE ON FERRETS WHO NOT GETTING VACCINATIONS. (Info on getting these done is in the separate archives.)
BTW, I have been informed that for humans there is currently titer work able to be done for rabies coverage, but have not checked on this, nor if any pet work on this regard has been done for any species.
Ferrets have been in our family for about 30 years and not vaccinating has NEVER seemed to give longer average life spans to any I have heard about until the last week so I kind of question if that has an effect given the lack of data, and only a few personal opinions without sufficient study.
On the other hand, the risk of an anaphylactic reaction might be increased in a ferret who already has good coverage, so doing titers tells which ferrets are protected from earlier vaccinations and which are not.
The lifespans Liz is seeing are the same typical ones we have ALWAYS seen (though some go older and some go younger) no matter how we vaccinate and until recent years when CDV titers became available that WAS annually. We used to purposely take in a number of ferrets with severe deformations so that WILL bring down the typical lifespans we personally have seen over the decades, but the usual age range here has been late in the 6th year to the middle of the 8th year, though there have been ones who passed before then and ones who passed after then. In other words, Liz is seeing the same typical lifespans as we have seen, no increase from her not vaccinating compared to ours.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
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)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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