AllFerrets says Goodby to one of its Founding Members On Jun 13, 2020, Nancy Jean Park, ferret owner, breeder and founding member of allFerrets, lost her battle with cancer, at 63 years of age. Read more>>>  Nancy Jean Park 2/2/1957 - 6/13/2020 Summer is here: How to recognize, Treat, and Prevent Heat Stroke in Ferrets  LIFE-THREATENING EMERGENCY
Ferrets are very susceptible to extreme heat. “Heatstroke” (or “hyperthermia”) occurs when a ferret is exposed environmental conditions that cause the body to exceed a normal temperature range. Normal (rectal) body temperature for a healthy ferret is 100 to 104 degrees Farenheit (°F) or 38 to 40 degrees Centigrade or Celsius (°C). Heat stroke must be considered when the body temperature of a ferret exceeds 104° to 105°F (40° to 40.6°C) in the absence of infection or inflammation. Heat stroke can damage the body. How much damage depends on: 1) how high the body (core) temperature becomes, and 2) the length of time that it is elevated. Signs
IMMEDIATE INTERVENTION IS REQUIRED
TREATMENT Ferrets may require stabilization. The veterinarian may reduce the ferret’s body temperature by using cooling pads, cold-water enemas, or cold fluids instilled into the abdominal cavity or into the blood stream. Oxygen therapy should be given to increase the amount of oxygen to the tissues. In severe cases, the animal may need to be intubated (a tube placed in the airway for administering oxygen). Even after the body temperature has normalized, hospitalization is warranted to monitor vital signs, blood work, and to ensure that the ferret remains stable. Although the ferret may appear to recover from heat stroke, signs of organ failure or other problems m ay develop over the following days, up to a week later. Medication may be given to protect the ferret’s stomach from “stress ulcers.” Organ failure: Heat can cause gastrointestinal signs, kidney, liver, or heat problems. When severe it can result in a “shock” syndrome (disseminated intravascular coagulation- or DIC), which can lead rapidly to death. Nervous system damage can occur, as well as severe muscle injury. PREVENTION
Can COVID-19 infect ferrets? This is a key question. Coronaviruses are a group of related viruses that cause disease in humans and animals. The name comes from the Latin word "corona" - or "crown"-- due to the crown-like projections from the viral surface. Coronaviruses have been found in both domestic and wild species—including cattle, horses, dogs, cats, camels, bats, civets, domestic ferrets, birds, and more recently, in snakes. At least three groups of coronaviruses cause mild to severe gastrointestinal (GI), lung, or systemic disease. Coronavirus infections are responsible for some cases of the common "cold"; others can be lethal, such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome), and COVID-19. Ferrets and Coronaviruses Ferrets are no strangers to coronaviruses. In 1993, a novel serious and highly contagious diarrhea spread through domestic ferrets in the United States. Known as the “Green Slime” from the appearance of the diarrhea, the disease became formally recognized as Epizootic Catarrhal Enteritis (ECE). ECE spread rapidly among ferrets. ECE did not infect humans. In 2002 people around the globe experienced the SARS (SARS-CoV), which resulted in serious lung infections. Ferrets were found to be susceptible to SARS. However, ferrets were not found to be susceptible to MERS (MERS-CoV), another serious human respiratory virus that appeared a decade later. COVID-19 Viruses generally spread following contact with an infected person or animal. Concern has been raised regarding the potential spread of COVID-19 from animals to humans: “zoonotic” transmission. Although zoonotic spread of viruses is not a common way for humans to become infected, transmission from animals to humans has been documented with SARS from wild civet cats. Other viruses besides coronaviruses may also spread from animals to humans, such as the H1NI influenza virus, found in pigs--"Swine flu", and in birds--- "Avian flu". When COVID-19, officially "SARS-CoV-2", first appeared in China in late 2019, it was thought to have originated from bats, and then transmitted to humans through an intermediate animal host. Studies are still ongoing at this time to explore the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak. At this time it is not known if ferrets can become infected with COVID-19. Animal Models for Vaccine and Drug Testing Domestic ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) have been recognized since the 1980's to be susceptible to the "seasonal flu" virus. The ferret can both catch and transmit the influenza virus in a manner very similar to how the virus acts in humans, as shown in the following figure.  The close similarity between how the virus acts in humans and ferrets makes the ferret an excellent laboratory model to test antiviral drugs and vaccines. The ferret has been the animal of choice to study a variety of respiratory viruses, which have included human and avian influenza viruses, coronavirus, nipah virus, morbillivirus, amongst others. [Belser 2011] It is not known if the ferret can become infected with COVID-19.
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person. At this time, there is no evidence that companion animals, including pets, can spread COVID-19. [AVMA,CDC, OIE] Transmission occurs between people in close contact with one another (less than 6 feet apart). The virus is carried on tiny droplets sprayed when an infected person speaks, coughs, or sneezes. It may also remain on surfaces where the infectious droplets land. Touching surfaces infected by the virus and then touching your mouth, nose or eyes, or food you eat can introduce the virus into your body. Common Sense Rules If you or a family member develop signs or symptoms—fever, cough, trouble breathing--and are found to test positive for COVID-19, follow these guidelines:
If you cannot delegate the care of your animals,
As a matter of routine care, it is always a good idea to wash your hands with soap and water BEFORE and AFTER contact with pets to help avoid transmission of more common illness-causing agents. Selected References
When 25-year-old Charlie Hammerton lost his best friend, mum and adopted mum in the same year, he started to suffer from depression. So the RAF airman quit his job and sold everything in a bid to feel more positive about life and to give himself space to deal with his grief. Charlie, from Cornwall, decided he wanted to travel the world and his pet ferret became his choice of companion. He said: ‘I went through a really rough time and developed serious depression. ‘A chain of bad things had happened to me and I had good reason to feel really miserable about my life. ‘But I decided that was not what I wanted to be, I didn’t want this to define me. I sold the lot and just took off. It was the making of me. ‘I channeled the negative energy and turned it into something positive.’
Starting out in February 2018, Charlie and Bandit ventured from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Holland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, France, Spain and Italy on their European road trip. The pair visited more than 25 towns and cities in 11 countries and Charlie documented the adventure on a Facebook page Adventures With The Bandit. ‘I have less money now but I am much wealthier as a person,’ says Charlie. ‘Travelling was the most amazing experience of my life and it was completely liberating. We followed the sun across the world and camped under the stars in amazing places.’
To give himself some space to deal with the grief, Charlie decided to quit his career and go on a globe-trotting adventure with Bandit. His adventures have included road trips to raise awareness for different charities. The pair walked across Hadrian’s Wall in aid of motor neurone disease charity, MND, and also skateboarded 40 miles across London in aid of a drug awareness charity. ‘It was horrible for me but I didn’t want to get into a rut because of it all,’ added Charlie. ‘The trip was completely liberating and I really did have an amazing experience. I needed to just go out and do something for me.’
He said: ‘The book is all about how you can take anything bad and turn it into something really good.
‘Everyone has the right and the ability to do that. ‘It’s easy to get stuck in a rut but there’s no need to. I feel so much better for what I did.’ Charlie now works in schools across the country teaching youngsters lessons on how to build confidence, self-esteem and outdoor living skills, such as camping and bushcraft. Source: https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/27/grieving-man-sells-everything-to-travel-the-world-with-his-pet-ferret-12130125/
 BERLIN—Ever wondered what kind of weasel would vandalize a perfectly good car left outside at night? Germany has the answer: Its technical name is the stone marten. This sharp-toothed critter has a habit of squeezing into the innards of parked cars and feasting on plastic hoses and tubes. And Germany’s marten population is exploding. Weasel damage is the fourth most frequent cause for non-collision auto insurance claims in Germany. Last year, drivers here filed 198,000 claims for weasel-inflicted damage, a 42% increase since 2005. And that probably underestimates the carnage.  “We only have data from those insurers that offer a weasel policy,” said Henning Engelage, a spokesman for the insurers’ federation. While other Europeans may dismiss weasel attacks as a mere annoyance, no one messes with a German’s car without consequences, says Michael Schönthal, owner of MS MarderSicher GmbH, a maker of popular weasel deterrent systems. Which is why the German auto industry has declared war on the weasel. Like any war, it starts with getting to know the enemy.  Biologist Susann Parlow at the Otter Center, where auto parts are tested against weasels. PHOTO: PHILIPP SCHULZE/DPA/ZUMA PRESS “The stone marten is an intelligent animal,” says Susann Parlow, a biologist at the Otter Center, a conservation center, in Hankensbüttel, about 27 miles north of Volkswagen AG’s Wolfsburg factory. The lone, ferociously territorial creature “understands that there is a rich buffet on offer in human civilization.” It rifles through garbage and steals eggs. Auto parts aren’t technically edible; they seem to send the stone marten into a rage.
Ms. Parlow conducts research for auto makers, suppliers, and other industries to develop more effective anti-weasel defenses. “They come to us with hoses they have developed and want to know if they are safe,” she says, pointing to a pile of boards in her lab, each with a row of hoses tacked to them, from past research. Most are torn, the telltale sign of a weasel feeding frenzy. Weasel vandalism reached epidemic proportions only recently, but has been a sporadic problem for decades. In 1979, Ruedi Muggler, a game commissioner in Winterthur, Switzerland, posited the existence of a new “auto weasel” after catching one red-pawed in the first documented ferret car invasion. Similar incidents followed—in southern Bavaria in 1979, Stuttgart in 1983, and Berlin in 1986. The German Automobile Club warned that German cars appeared especially delectable to the animals. Worried that fear of the weasel would drive customers to seemingly inedible foreign brands, Audi AG, the luxury car maker owned by Volkswagen AG; and Mercedes-Benz, owned by Daimler AG, hired a biologist in 1982 to get to the bottom of the problem. Karl Kugelschafter, now 64, interviewed hundreds of victims, locked up luxury cars in cages and watched as the weasels ripped them to shreds. “They go absolutely insane and tear everything apart,” said Mr. Kugelschafter, who today is better known as the inventor of a groundbreaking method of counting bats. He rejected the mutation theory, settling instead on biology and economics. By the 1950s, stone marten populations had been decimated in Europe due to high demand for pelts in the U.S. When that fashion passed, populations began to recover, just as car ownership was exploding in Germany. The early days of the war on weasels were frustrating. Sprays made from dog or bear urine didn’t work. Then, Manfred Gutjahr, a senior research executive at Daimler, took Mr. Kugelschafter’s research and launched the Manhattan Project of Germany’s weasel defense. His key legacy was the Weidenzaunprinzip, or “pasture fence principle”: an electric fence woven around the engine to zap the critters. In 1985, Mr. Gutjahr and his team registered the first patent for a weasel defense system that remains the anti-weasel weapon of choice today. Mercedes-Benz once used the device in an advertisement for a new electric version of its A-Class. A wily weasel crawls into the car’s engine and is repelled by a stiff electric shock, followed by the message: “The electric A-Class, Innovation with Power.” Audi, in a bit of territorial marking of its own, advertises an optional Marderabwehrsystem, or Weasel Defense System, with the slogan: “My Audi, My Territory.” It sells the system for around €205, or $228, plus installation costs. The company continues to research the threat. In 2014, engineers conducted their own zoological experiment, installing tiny cameras inside an engine to observe the weasel at work. Systems based on the pasture fence model are relatively expensive, costing $500 on average. And with the weasel population fast rising, smaller companies have come up with inexpensive alternatives. Weasel repellent spray retails for around $20 a can. There are dozens of products online in the German Amazon store with names like Marderschreck (Scourge of the Weasel), MartenEX, or Dr. Stähler’s Marderabwehr Spray. Some are biodegradable while others promise to also repel raccoons. There are mats and netting that can be attached to the underside of the engine, and mechanical devices such as decoy cables that can be hooked up to a battery source to shock the animals when they bite. At the more sophisticated end, K&K Handelsgesellschaft mbH, has developed a weasel-defense array of six ultrasound speakers coupled with high-voltage electricity. The speakers send ultrasound bursts that are inaudible to humans but allegedly unbearable to weasels. Should a brave or deaf weasel nevertheless climb on board and touch the speakers, it gets hit with a 300 volt shock that K&K claims will “spoil the weasel’s fun playing in the engine.” Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/they-go-absolutely-insane-and-tear-everything-apart-weasels-love-german-cars-11577377251? Emotional Support Ferret Lands Owner In Trouble |
 | ALLFerrets CELEBRATES |
Thursday, April 2, 2020 is National Ferret Day in the United States.
National Ferret Day has become a day to promote and to educate the public about the European ferret, the domestic ferret owned as a house pet by millions of households worldwide, including the US. Online Ferret Community allFerrets, welcomes all ferret enthusiasts to participate in ferret-related activities.
Celebrated for at least two decades prior to its gaining “official” status in the United States, National Ferret Day was promoted by ferret owner Carol Roche (New York) working with ferret organizations to achieve official recognition of April 2nd, through the Chase Calendar Days in 2014.
The origins of a National Ferret Day are not entirely clear. The day was not listed in the federal records as of 1994. However, National Ferret Day has been on the US calendar of the National Special Events Registry [http://www.celebratetoday.com/register.html] listing special holidays, since 1995 according to John Kremer, president of Open Horizons, the company that operates the registry.
“International Ferret Day”
The United States is not alone in observance of a National Ferret Day-- nor is April 2 the only calendar date reserved for its observance. Reference to its occurrence in February can be found on the Internet, and May 5th has been recognized for National Ferret Day in the United Kingdom since 2007, established by the Ferret Education and Research Trust (FERT).
Regardless of its origins, National Ferret Day can be celebrated in any way you choose to recognize the Ferret as a wonderful pet and member of the household.
How will you celebrate National Ferret Day this year?
References:
https://www.wheniscalendars.com/when-is-national-ferret-day/
https://www.worldnationaldays.com/national-ferret-day-2019/
Recognizing the Black footed ferret:
https://medium.com/wild-without-end/happy-national-ferret-day-b96ab768ac4f
National Ferret Day has become a day to promote and to educate the public about the European ferret, the domestic ferret owned as a house pet by millions of households worldwide, including the US. Online Ferret Community allFerrets, welcomes all ferret enthusiasts to participate in ferret-related activities.
Celebrated for at least two decades prior to its gaining “official” status in the United States, National Ferret Day was promoted by ferret owner Carol Roche (New York) working with ferret organizations to achieve official recognition of April 2nd, through the Chase Calendar Days in 2014.
The origins of a National Ferret Day are not entirely clear. The day was not listed in the federal records as of 1994. However, National Ferret Day has been on the US calendar of the National Special Events Registry [http://www.celebratetoday.com/register.html] listing special holidays, since 1995 according to John Kremer, president of Open Horizons, the company that operates the registry.
“International Ferret Day”
The United States is not alone in observance of a National Ferret Day-- nor is April 2 the only calendar date reserved for its observance. Reference to its occurrence in February can be found on the Internet, and May 5th has been recognized for National Ferret Day in the United Kingdom since 2007, established by the Ferret Education and Research Trust (FERT).
Regardless of its origins, National Ferret Day can be celebrated in any way you choose to recognize the Ferret as a wonderful pet and member of the household.
How will you celebrate National Ferret Day this year?
- Spend time with your ferrets.
- Trim their nails and do a “flea” check.
- Clean the ferret cage or ferret room!
- Volunteer at a local Ferret Shelter.
- Schedule the next ferret annual veterinary checkup
- Donate to a ferret cause: time, needed items, or $$.
- Read and learn more about ferrets at the all new allFerrets website!
References:
https://www.wheniscalendars.com/when-is-national-ferret-day/
https://www.worldnationaldays.com/national-ferret-day-2019/
Recognizing the Black footed ferret:
https://medium.com/wild-without-end/happy-national-ferret-day-b96ab768ac4f
March 2018 -- Washington, DC has revised its statutory position on ferrets. Effective as of March 30, 2018, DC Code 8-1808 now lists ferrets among the classes of EXEMPTED animals from those that are prohibited in the District, thereby making ferrets legal to own in the District. The Code reads:
- (j)(1) Except as provided in this subsection, a person shall not import into the District, possess, display, offer for sale, trade, barter, exchange, or adoption, or give as a household pet, any living member of the animal kingdom, including those born or raised in captivity, except the following:
- (A) Domestic dogs, excluding hybrids with wolves, coyotes, or jackals; (B) Domestic cats, excluding hybrids with ocelots or margays; (C) Domesticated rodents and rabbits; (D) Captive-bred species of common cage birds; (E) Non-venomous snakes, fish, and turtles, traditionally kept in the home for pleasure rather than for commercial purposes; (F) Ferrets; and (G) Racing pigeons, when kept in compliance with permit requirements. https://code.dccouncil.us/dc/council/code/sections/8-1808.html
- This action reverses a 36 year prohibition of ferrets, which were added to the DC code of "prohibited species" in 1982. At the time the reason given was the lack of an approved Rabies vaccine for ferrets. The first Rabies vaccine for ferrets, IMRAB-3, was licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1990. However, the DC council refused to act to remove ferrets from the banned list until recently.
October 20, 2017 - California ferret enthusiasts are exploring Sanctuary Status for their beloved pets at the city level. On September 26, 2017, residents of La Mesa, California (in San Diego County) spoke before the City Council to request sanctuary status and a "safe harbor" for there furry friends. Council Members were duly impressed and are in teh process of exploring the status change. Similar efforts are being pursued in Culver City as well.
Legalize Ferrets.org, headed by Pat Wright (San Diego) has presented a Citizen Petition requesting that ferrets be given parity with dog and cat owners in the state. However, the State's Fish and Wildlife commission continues the 2-decades old stance that ferrets are wild animals and therefore cannot be kept as pets in CA. Ferrets are domestic animals, recognized by the US federal government and pretty much all academic and authoritative sources. The process of legalizing ferrets in the Golden State continues. Domestic ferrets are legal in 48 states. They are restricted in California, Hawaii, and a few individual US cities, including Washington, D.C., and New York City.
On October 13, the international online journal, Animals published an article by Lepe, et al, entitled Environmental Impact and Relative Invasiveness of Free-Roaming Domestic Carnivores—a North American Survey of Governmental Agencies http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/7/10/78
"This the first study to compare the relative impact of free-roaming dogs, cats, and ferrets. It shows differences in how these three animals react to novel environments. For the US and Canada, free roaming cats and dogs meet the definition of an “invasive” species, whereas ferrets do not. However, the way we as a society view these animals, our attitudes and perceptions, may influence how governmental agencies manage and control them."
"This the first study to compare the relative impact of free-roaming dogs, cats, and ferrets. It shows differences in how these three animals react to novel environments. For the US and Canada, free roaming cats and dogs meet the definition of an “invasive” species, whereas ferrets do not. However, the way we as a society view these animals, our attitudes and perceptions, may influence how governmental agencies manage and control them."
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