Message Number: YG7948 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Bruce Williams, DVM
Date: 2001-10-16 04:51:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Ferret Death

--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., tvtalker2000@y... wrote:
> I hope you can help me.
> Last night I lost my precious Oscar after a lengthy battle with
> Cushings disease. I was told his illness was "textbook" but yet to
> see it mentioned when talking about ferret health. He got to the
> point where he lost 1/2 his weight and was almost skeletal. The Vet
> had him on antibiotics but over the course of the last month or so
> he's been going down hill. Since Friday he hadn't been eating and
I
> called my vet to find out what I could do. I was told he was likely
> bleeding internally due to his feces being a black glob. He was so
> weak and would whimper every so often. All I could do was hold him
> and try to keep him hydrated and comfortable as instructed. I have
a
> few question that I hope you can answer on this illness and what to
> do since I have another ferret who is younger.
>
> IS Cushing's common to ferrets

Dear TV talker -

I believe that if you do some simple searches on the Web, to include
the archives of the FHL, the FML, a review of any number of sites
(including my own at http://www.afip.org/ferrets), etc., that you
will likely find significant discrepancies between the picture of
adrenal disease which your veterinarian described to you, and the
syndrome of adrenal disease which occurs in ferrets. Additionally,
the symptoms of black tarry feces are very consistent with a gastric
ulcer, rather than true internal bleeding. While I am not privy to
the discussions that your vet had with you in this case, I am hopeful
that some facts were lost in the translation of this heartbreaking
event, and that the guidance that your vet gave you was significantly
different that that which appears in this post.

With kindest regards,

Bruce Williams, dVM