From:
daneedv@aol.com
Date: 2002-09-17 17:49:51 UTC
Subject: RE: Swollen Vulva Continues to Baffle
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <9145402.1032284991816.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Author wrote:
> A few months ago I wrote asking for advice on our female ferret (about 1-1/2 - 2 years old) with a swollen vulva.
Unfortunately, I can't help you with an answer, but I had a ferret with a similar problem.
I had a Path Valley girl who at about 9 months of age (in the spring) appeared to come in season. My vet suspected ovarian remnents, and did exploatory surgery - no remnents were found. We tried hormone shots, but that didn't reduce the swelling. After several months(in the early fall), the vulva returned to normal. The next year she went through the same thing, only she started losing her fur. Adreanl disease was suspected, so we again put her through surgery. Both adrenals looked fine, but as a precaution, the left was removed. Pathology was done, and the tissue was determined to be completely normal. Again, in the fall, the vulva returned to normal size, and she did get some regrowth of fur.
The third year we saw the same swelling and loss of fur. A third surgery was done, again looking for any ovarian remnents and checking the remaining adreanl. No remnents were found, and the adrenal looked normal. That fall the vulva returned to normal, but there was no regrowth of fur.
The fourth year her vulva again became swollen. Unfortunately, in the late summer, she had a severe reaction to her distemper vaccination, and before she could fully recover, we got hit with ECE. This was when ECE was first hitting ferrets, and we did not know as much about how to treat it. In her waekened condition (from the shot reaction)she was unable to survive the ECE, so she died without us ever finding out what had caused her problem.
Danee