From:
dr_bruce_williams
Date: 2002-03-07 07:08:00 UTC
Subject: Re: NEED VETS HELP/MYCOBACTERIUM..........
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "Trina" <bacardi4me@b...> wrote:
> I am in need of information ASAP....
On 2-23 Fozzy passed
> away while sleeping.
>
> > He need to call the lab for some more answers, would call me
back. Never
> called.. Finally today I got ahold of him and he said what they
found was a
> Mycobacterium but he was not sure if it was Avium or ??(I am not
sure on the
> spelling of what he said)
> He said depending on which one it was we may all need treatment and
he needs
> to talk to the State People tomorrow and they may make me
Euthanise all my
> ferrets!!!!!
Dear Trina:
Let me be blunt here - this is (relative) nonsense. Mycobacterium
avium is the most ubiquitous of the mycobacteria in our environment,
and all of us, human, dog, cat and ferret, come in contact with it
many many times a day. It does not pose a contagion risk to any
normal healthy individual, however, it may pose a small risk to
infants, the aged, or immunosuppressed people such as post-transplant
recipients or people with AIDS.
It is a very difficult disease to treat, and carries a poor prognosis
for those ferrets affected, but in the normal household, there is
little chance of spread. There is often some unidentified mechanism
for immunesuppression in affectd animals, and I have seen several
outbreaks, but only in families of dogs which all have some genetic
defect which affects the immune system.
I get this question several times a year, and my answer is always the
same - without family members who are immunosuppressed, there is a)
no need to euthanize the animal, and b) no need for undue worry. If
we were so worried about Mycobacterium avium - we'd never venture out
of the house (or even out of bed) every day.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM