From:
More Ferrets?!?
Date: 2001-04-04 22:12:00 UTC
Subject: ferret MS or ALS?
once again for the vets: please allow me to pick your brains
once more. long story short: critter goes lame in the hind
end - one day fine and happy, the next the legs don't work.
for about 2 weeks he just motored about soft and floppy, but
then his legs started to stiffen. about the time his legs
started to crimp up, he went to work on himself. i never did
see him do it, but he managed to chew himself up pretty badly.
at first it appeared to be a bit o' redness. the redness
turned into scabbing, which progressed down the spinal column
and out onto the backs of the thighs. i can only assume he
kept on chewing and the scabs began to rise vertically as well
as spread horizontally. eventually the scabbing covered the
spinal column for about 3", then across the hips and down to
cover the backs of the thighs. NEVER any signs o' pain.
wonderful tincture made quick work of the flesh wounds, but
the crimping and paralysis kept on marching up the critter.
i'll interject after about 4 weeks since the first trouble the
toes seemed to respond to stimulus...but frankly, i think this
was just overall shaking - the legs would vibrate vigorously
from time to time at this point. i was doing PT every hour
morning, noon and every hour on the hour in the evening when i
was home, but to no avail. the creeping continued up the
body, stiffening the whole critter. meanwhile, critter
remained happy and tolerant. the creeping continued for 2
months in total. when the arms came in and the head went down,
i decided it was time to help the critter on along. oh...and
did i mention that just about all of his hair fell off at
about week 5 - then began growing back immediately? after he
passed we investigated the body. while the stiffness relaxed
with death in his torso, neck and so forth, the muscles on his
legs were sclerosed (sp?? eek) and just about gone. cursory
gross autopsy showed nothing. we tested for ADV - negative.
one vet i spoke to suggested lymphoma in the spinal column ??
any ideas here? have you seen anything like this? FYI: al
was a 4 year old MF weezil.
i've attached several photos. i hope this isn't too
many...this is my first post with photos. i've sent along
several so you can view those that best show the troubles i'm
describing. the pictures are attached in
sequence/progression...the first set is of the horrible flesh
wounds, the next are of the crimping and the last set are from
the day before al died.
Attachment 5k (image/jpeg) Al wound 1.jpg
Attachment 4k (image/jpeg) Al Wound 2.jpg
Attachment 7k (image/jpeg) Al Wound 3.jpg
Attachment 6k (image/jpeg) Al Wound 4.jpg
Attachment 7k (image/jpeg) Al Wound 5.jpg
Attachment 7k (image/jpeg) Al crimp 1.JPG
Attachment 9k (image/jpeg) Al crimp 2.JPG
Attachment 7k (image/jpeg) Al end 1.jpg
Attachment 9k (image/jpeg) Al end 3.jpg