From:
Bruce Williams, DVM
Date: 2001-10-03 13:18:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Swollen third eyelid and swollen head
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "Ulrike" <ferretlove@n...> wrote:
> Hello
>
> I wrote about my Spike a while ago, about his third eyelid being
swollen and
> red. It has gradually become worse and his whole head and neck are
swollen.
> The vets did a blood test but all results were normal. Now my vet
suggested
> that there may be a mass growing in his head and somehow (I forgot
her exact
> words) stopping blood or fluid from flowing out of his head,
causing a
> build-up of fluid in his tissue. Or high blood pressure in his
head. All
> the tissue in his head/ mouth is soft and swollen, we were hoping
for an
> infection but that would have shown in his blood results so it's
now likely
> to be fluid build-up in the tissue. They want to x-ray his head
tomorrow
> and asked me to bring a healthy ferret along so they can see whether
> anything is different in Spike. I just wanted to ask whether
anybody has
> ever had this problem or what it is likely to be. One of my vets
is really
> excited, he gets this way when I come with rare and weird problems,
he
> thinks that there is something in his head that is pushing his eyes
> outwards...
Dear Ulrike:
I must admit, that I can understand your vet's excitement - I get the
same rush when a really interesting case comes along.
And this is an unusual case. I've never seen anything like it in a
ferret. But I have seen cases like it in other species. It is
likely not a solitary mass in the head - while this could possibly
cause one eye to bulge, or extremely rarely, two - they usually don't
account for swelling of all tissues.
I like your vet's theory on interrupted outflow from the head and
neck. The rare cases that I have seen generally involved some
occlusion of the anterior vena cava - the large single vein which
drains the head and neck. Both carotid veins dump into this large
vein, which if occluded, will cause edema of the head and neck. This
vein can be occluded by a thrombus, a neoplasm (usually outside the
vein, compressing it), or by similar processes in the right atrium of
the heart, where it dumps into. You can rarely see clots in the
atria in ferrets with heart disease, but I have not seen one of this
size (at least yet.)
In such cases, contrast radiography of the vessels of the head, neck,
and chest is the best way to identify the vascular problem short of
at autopsy, but this is usually only available through large referral
hospitals or universities. In a typical pracice, this is a very
difficult diagnosis to make antemortem, and probably more difficult
to treat. I hope that I am out to lunch on this one.
On another note, your pictures are terrific - what great quality!
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM