ADV ALERT! (ferret stuff)
Ok, so I'm kinda worried about all the posts I've seen lately about people getting new ferrets and not quarantining them or getting them ADV tested. There is really no excuse for this at all.
Kits with ECE can shed the virus for quite a while without looking like they are sick at all, and older ferrets tend to have much more severe cases of ECE than kits.
Ferrets with ADV can show no signs at all, and still be able to infect other ferrets with the virus, even if you just handle them both.
ECE is not usually fatal as long as you provide supportive care (hand feeding meat baby food or duck soup every couple hours, and giving pedialyte, and occasionally, they need emergency vet care). It's expensive to treat in both time and money, and can be prevented with good quarantine.
ADV, on the other hand, is eventually fatal, and has NO CURE. Once a ferret in your household gets ADV, it can live in the house outside the ferret for a VERY long time, and thus any new ferrets you get can also catch it. And it's extremely hard to rid your house of it-not everything can be cleaned with 10% bleach, and there is some indication that it can be airborne or in particles in dust. So basically, you can't get rid of it for years, and the only real way to protect your ferrets is to test them before bringing them home and to not let them (or yourself) play with ferrets who's owners don't know the ADV status of thier own ferrets. and yes, this means not picking up and cuddling cute little petstore babies. I think it's a small price to pay to ensure the safety of my own ferrets.
This is not something to be taken lightly, folks. You'll never know unless you test, and the tests are fairly cheap. $15 US/ferret that you can do at home through avecon-there's no excuse NOT to, really.
PLEASE, for the sakes of your fuzzies, test your ferrets. and retest them every 6-12 months, as the virus may not have replicated enough to show up if they've been recently infected.
(my own 6 are all getting tested as part of a talk I'm giving about ADV to my graduate virology class at the end of the month.) Plus, if you know anyone else with ferrets, they give discount rates on tests if you order in bulk (5 or more tests is $12 each as opposed to $15, and it goes down from there), and the test are good for quite a while. shipping is pretty cheap too.
And lastly, convince your vet to do the testing as part of the yearly vaccination schedule. Distemper and rabies are also uniformly fatal, and there are no cures, but at least there are vaccinations. There is no vaccine for ADV, so all you can do is test and be safe by not exposing yourself or your ferrets to ferrets of unknown ADV status.
Here's the link for the home test:
http://www.avecon.com/qcadv.html
Kits with ECE can shed the virus for quite a while without looking like they are sick at all, and older ferrets tend to have much more severe cases of ECE than kits.
Ferrets with ADV can show no signs at all, and still be able to infect other ferrets with the virus, even if you just handle them both.
ECE is not usually fatal as long as you provide supportive care (hand feeding meat baby food or duck soup every couple hours, and giving pedialyte, and occasionally, they need emergency vet care). It's expensive to treat in both time and money, and can be prevented with good quarantine.
ADV, on the other hand, is eventually fatal, and has NO CURE. Once a ferret in your household gets ADV, it can live in the house outside the ferret for a VERY long time, and thus any new ferrets you get can also catch it. And it's extremely hard to rid your house of it-not everything can be cleaned with 10% bleach, and there is some indication that it can be airborne or in particles in dust. So basically, you can't get rid of it for years, and the only real way to protect your ferrets is to test them before bringing them home and to not let them (or yourself) play with ferrets who's owners don't know the ADV status of thier own ferrets. and yes, this means not picking up and cuddling cute little petstore babies. I think it's a small price to pay to ensure the safety of my own ferrets.
This is not something to be taken lightly, folks. You'll never know unless you test, and the tests are fairly cheap. $15 US/ferret that you can do at home through avecon-there's no excuse NOT to, really.
PLEASE, for the sakes of your fuzzies, test your ferrets. and retest them every 6-12 months, as the virus may not have replicated enough to show up if they've been recently infected.
(my own 6 are all getting tested as part of a talk I'm giving about ADV to my graduate virology class at the end of the month.) Plus, if you know anyone else with ferrets, they give discount rates on tests if you order in bulk (5 or more tests is $12 each as opposed to $15, and it goes down from there), and the test are good for quite a while. shipping is pretty cheap too.
And lastly, convince your vet to do the testing as part of the yearly vaccination schedule. Distemper and rabies are also uniformly fatal, and there are no cures, but at least there are vaccinations. There is no vaccine for ADV, so all you can do is test and be safe by not exposing yourself or your ferrets to ferrets of unknown ADV status.
Here's the link for the home test:
http://www.avecon.com/qcadv.html