Ferrets and leptospirosis

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

grumpyoldman — Sat, 07 Nov 2015 11:12:28 GMT

[quote user="Hannah Wynne Richards"]Possibly it's still there in the fox population,[/quote]

I was always confused by the term Fox Distemper, seemed to involve any kind of respiratory problem ,but with increasing numbers and their urbanisation its a possibility. Had one the other day in the garden again, tall enough to have a bit of a stand off with my collie. We have lots of people slipping them milbemax now as, they insist on feeding them carcases etc. We have also had more pet dogs showing up with Cernesoma Vulpis in faecal samples recently.

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

Hannah Wynne Richards — Sat, 07 Nov 2015 10:52:48 GMT

Possibly it's still there in the fox population, grumbling along at a low level,and flared up. Either a fox came sniffing at the hutch of an outdoor ferret, which was then brought to the rescue centre, or it spread from foxes to an unvaccinated dog, which was then brought into the centre for rehoming

Wynne

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

grumpyoldman — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 22:36:17 GMT

[quote user="Mark Hedberg"]We had a big distemper outbreak in ferrets and skunks in the West Midlands 2 or 3 years ago.[/quote]

That is interesting , can.t help wondering how it happened ? presumably in contact dogs , possibly illegally imported unvaccinated for the pet trade ? I am in the West Midlands and i have not seen a dog with distemper since 1996. I always felt it was a victim of extremely good vaccines and did not happen anymore?

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

Mark Hedberg — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 15:39:41 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]

[quote user="Marie Kubiak"]We had a big distemper outbreak in ferrets and skunks in the West Midlands 2 or 3 years ago. We use the freeze dried portion of Vanguard 7 plus sterile diluent[/quote]Interesting, thanks for the information, although I still question the risk in pet ferrets confined indoors. Do you get them to sign an off-licence form for the vaccine?

[/quote]

How many owners swear blind their cats never go outside? :)

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 10:16:23 GMT

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

Marie Kubiak — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 10:12:07 GMT

We had a big distemper outbreak in ferrets and skunks in the West Midlands 2 or 3 years ago and owners and rescues lost dozens of animals so I recommend distemper vaccination as routine. Despite the off licence use we haven't seen a single reaction in a vaccinated animal but I ask clients to wait 20mins after vaccine before going home just in case.

We use the freeze dried portion of Vanguard 7 plus sterile diluent so are effectively giving adenovirus and parainfluenza antigen as well.

Lepto is exceptionally rare in ferrets - even those with experimental or high risk of natural exposure rarely demonstrate a serological response, and those that do are asymptomatic so lepto vaccination is not a priority for ferrets.

Marie

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 08:44:50 GMT

IMO, the risk of either of these diseases in pet ferrets is so low that the use of the vaccine off-label cannot be justified. Has anyone ever seen a case of Distemper or lepto in a ferret? AFAIA there is no sole agent Distemper vaccine available in the UK so what do those who vaccinate use?

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

Alex Allen — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 08:25:15 GMT

Whilst off label the use of Distemper vaccines is widespread and the manufacturers will tell you if their vaccine has any safety data in ferrets or not.

An important point is the vaccine dose used should be WHOLE DOSE - Do NOT use a half dose otherwise the critical antigen mass may not be achieved and efficacy adversely affected. I believe the half dose regime was based on a study where 1/2 of the dose was given on two occasions within a short period of time. So effectively a whole dose was given.

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

Nicola Cole — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 00:07:38 GMT

I've always just done distemper as well

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

Lindsey Edwards — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 23:46:36 GMT

I've always been lead to believe lepto to be rare in ferrets. Do most of you advise yearly distemper vacc or longer?

RE: Ferrets and leptospirosis

Hannah Wynne Richards — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 17:18:30 GMT

They can get it - but very very very rarely do.

I suspect the previous veterinary surgeon may have nade a mistake?

Wynne