From:
cjansa99
Date: 2002-02-25 15:16:00 UTC
Subject: What Is Hepatic Lipidosis?
Am I not being specific enough as to what my questions are regarding
the pathology report I originally posted (and now re-posted) in this
thread to get any responses? I thought that perhaps someone on this
list could help explain the findings in the report and give me an
opinion as to whether ECE was most likely the cause of death in my
ferrets or is there another possiblity? I can't seem to find anything
defining Hepatic Lipidosis in the archieves and the explanation my
vet gave me during our brief conversation made no sense at all to
me. What is it and is it normally found in ferrets with ECE?
PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN......
Cindy
"cjansa99" <cjansa@f...> wrote:
> Hello Gang,
>
> The Pathology report is back on one of my 3 ferrets that all died
> last month. I don't pretend to understand any of it, and my vet
has
> been unavailable to sit down with me and explain the findings in
> detail. From the looks of it I guess it was ECE that killed
them.
> I still dont understand why the kit succumbed to the virus and
died.
> I thought the little guys were supposed to come through it with
> flying colors. I am attaching the pathology report in hopes of
> getting the opinions of those professionals here on the list as to
> what the 4 diagnoses given mean. Since ECE seems to be the case
> here how long is it safe to wait before bringing any new ferrets
> home? I've heard so many different things as to how long the virus
> remains active that I'm not sure what to believe. The vet said the
> bleach would kill everything I cleaned but what about the carpet
and
> furniture that they loved to crawl all over? I can't very well use
> bleach on that stuff. Will the virus lurk in those fabrics, and if
> so how long?
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Cindy & The Wyoming Ferrets
>
> PATHOLOGY REPORT ATTACHED:
>
> HISTORY:
> This 5-year-old, female, captive bred ferret had an eight day
history
> of mucoid enteritis that included melena over the last three days
of
> the disease course. The ferret died. Necropsy showed severe
> inflammation of the duodenum and pancreas.
>
> CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS: Open.
>
> GROSS:
> Received in formalin are seven tissues to 3 cm. in greatest
dimension
> that are processed in one block.
>
> MICROSCOPIC:
> Liver: Diffusely, hepatocytes have marked fatty change.
> Centrilobular veins are congested. Pancreas: The interstitium and
> the pancreatic parenchyma are suffused with extravasated blood.
> Kidney: Low numbers of tubules are necrotic. Blood vessels are
> congested, and extensive foci of hemorrhage are noted in the
> parenchyma. Intestine: One section contains luminal digested
blood
> or bile. A separate section of intestine has superficial mucosal
> necrosis with crypt and villous regeneration and mild infiltrates
of
> lymphocytes and plasma cells. Small foci of fibrin deposition and
> hemorrhage are also noted in the mucosa. Spleen: Small foci of
> hemorrhage are noted in the red pulp, and some of the macrophages
> contain hemosiderin. The following tissues are histologically
within
> normal limits: stomach (autolyzed), adipose.
>
> DIAGNOSIS:
> 1. Severe hepatic lipidosis.
> 2. Acute segmental necrotizing enteritis, intestine.
> 3. Acute hemorrhage, pancreas, kidney, spleen.
> 4. Mild renal tubular necrosis.
>
> COMMENT:
> Hepatic lipidosis in this case was severe and likely associated
with
> significant hepatic insufficiency. The extensive hemorrhage in a
> number of tissues may be due to coagulopathy associated with this
> process. This ferret also had segmental acute necrotizing
> enteritis. This lesion may have been due to stress-related
erosion,
> bacterial overgrowth, or viral infection. The tissue is otherwise
> too autolyzed to further characterize. The melena detected in a
> separate section of intestine is likely due to the previously
> described intestinal lesion. The gastric mucosa was completely
> autolyzed, but there did not appear to be a significant
inflammatory
> cell infiltrate in the stomach. The cause for the mucoid diarrhea
> described clinically could not be determined, but the clinical
> presentation is similar to that of enteric coronavirus infection of
> ferrets. This ferret did not appear to have the chronic form of
> inflammatory bowel disease that is commonly seen in ferrets. With
> the exception of autolysis and melena in the lumen of the
intestine,
> this section of intestine was judged to be histologically within
> normal limits.