From:
sukieferret
Date: 2002-02-25 18:06:00 UTC
Subject: Re: What Is Hepatic Lipidosis?
Fatty liver, but that isn't what worries me about the history and
path report. The pathologist was limited by the amount of
time after death so has a possible idea of one thing that might
have been going on, but that differs widely from having a firm
diagnosis of ECE.
I found myself wondering if some of what was described as hemmorhage was lividity or was hemmorhage. Lividiity is the settling of blood after
death, but I am not a vet let alone a vet pathologist and just do
not know.
Also found myself wondering if the time that passed before
necropsy (over 40 hours) could have caused some of the
intestinal damage seen.
When ECE came into our household we had one of the really
nasty strains, and we did not get anywhere NEAR other ferrets
for a full year afterward to avoid endangering any, even though
that wasn't easy. Okay, it was far from easy... Still, there was no real option that didn't have some possible risk to ferrets.
Even though we had a terrible strain we didn't lose anyone -- had
three with permanent damage and two of those had their lives
shortened, esp. Spot due to kidney damage.
In your case all three ferrets died, and aspects of the symptoms
described just didn't really sound like ECE, so I have to wonder
myself just how long you should wait and what you should do to
sterilize. I simply don't know.
If I were in your shoes I suspect -- not knowing more -- that I would NOT get a new ferret for quite some time to be safest -- think I'd wait a year -- honestly, I would and I know from experience that i would. I know that is not what you want to hear, and I'd be heartbroken in that position myself, but it's what I'd do. Think I'd find out what alternative pet I might have
instead while waiting. Meanwhile, I'd keep trying to get info like you are doing, and I'd try very hard to not grasp what I want to hear if I don't find real firm support from reputable sources behind it.
Sorry, I know that you are in a difficult position.