From:
williamsb@comcast.net
Date: 2002-08-21 20:09:59 UTC
Subject: RE: Attn Dr. Williams/Vets
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <22279738.1029960599710.JavaMail.root@scandium>
> Comments: Clinical history indicates suspected Inflammatory bowel disease
> that initially responded to steriod therapy, though progressed to acute
> lethargy and watery green diarrhea preceding death. Clinical pathology
> included hypoalbuminemia, electrolyte abnormalities and hyperphosphatatemia.
> Within the gastrointestinal tract, the histological lesions are striking and
> dominated by deposition of pale eosinophilic, generally amorphous to slightly
> fibrillar, extracellular matrix that prompted the primary differential of
> amyloid. However, this material is not located in the typical places amyloid
> is identified, such as surrounding vessles and withint hte muscular tunics;
> this material is limited to the lamina propria. Furthermore the material
> failed to stain with congo red, though occasionally, other special stains for
> and electron microscopy are necessary to demonstrate amyloid. For those
> reasons consideration should also be given to the material representing
> collagen as part of the fribrosis/sclerosis. Under this category, it is
> possible that firbrosis/sclerosis count potentially accompany severe
> gastrointestinal inflammations, though the degree of deposition is quite
> marked and uniformly diffuse. The young age of the patient prompts the
> question of possible congenital "sclerosing disease" of limited
> distribution. Further complicating the clinical scenario in this patient is
> sever hepatic lipidosis.
Dear Lisa:
I think that I would have to see the slides before I could comment on this one. I am not familiar with a congenital "sclerosing disease" in ferrets, but have seen a couple of cases of diffuse intestinal fibrosis following a severe case of enteritis. Occasionally, if you have significant autolysis of the intestine (I noticed that the pancreas was considered quite autolytic) it may give an appearance of fibrosis of the intestinal lining, when such a change is not really occurring.
I don't thing that hepatic lipidosis really would complicate the clinical picture, as it is generally a physiologic change in ferrets that are not eating/abdsorbing nutrients, rather than an actual pathologic change.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM