From:
dr_bruce_williams
Date: 2002-03-01 23:17:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Distemper or flu with bad skin problem....
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "craigkrisowen" <craigkrisowen@y...>
wrote:
>
> Hi,
> Sunday my male ferret, about 3-4 months old, started sneezing,
> coughing and had a high temp. Monday the sneezing and coughing was
> gone but temp was 104.5 . Yesterday it was 106 degrees. His paw
pads,
> swollen eye's and mouth all look like distemper my vet said only
some
> symptoms are not there.
Dear Craig:
I must say that the symptoms that you have given, couple with the
history of only one distemper shot (which actually affords little to
no actual protection from distemper) have me very concerned.
Not all cases of distemper will show all signs, and rarely all at
once. Additional signs develop over several weeks.
At this point, I would recommend two things be done immediately -
1) I'd like to see some images of him, including the lesions that
you have described. You can post them here, or send them to me in
private.
2) I think that we should be looking strongly at the possibility of
distemper here, and a biopsy of the footpad or possibly another area
(based on what the lesions look like) would be a very good way to
go. Otherwise you may consider doing a distemper titer, as you
really don't have to worry about either maternal antibody or
significant vaccine antibody at this point. Neither is 100% so both
may be performed.
I would be happy to look at a skin biopsy, and can do this for you at
no charge. The viral inclusions of ditemper are often present in
areas afffected by the rash.
We need to rule out distemper quickly in this case - onlce it is
ruled in or out, then we can progress to other diagnoses and
treatment, but as distemper is essesntially 100% fatal and not at all
a pleasant ordeal, we would want to spare you and this little guy a
lot of grief should it turn out to be distemper.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM