Message Number: YG12640 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Jen & Andre
Date: 2002-04-20 16:33:00 UTC
Subject: What would you do? (and vets!)

Since November 4 out of 4 of my ferrets have developed
serious problems. I moved to a new city in September 2001 and
my oldest (8.5) was diagnosed with lymphoma in Nov. She was
put down in Jan. Shortly thereafter my 6 year old went into
the hospital. After 5 days in ICU it became clear that it
wasn't insulinoma like we all thought, it was infectious
peritonitis from a helicobacter ulcer and she was put down. We
brought home a new ferret in late February and 48 hours later
our 2 year old developed the symptoms of ECE. After a week and
a half of supportive care she stopped having diarrhea but to
this day still has granular stools. The new ferret began
having anal abscesses. We found out that he had a botched
descenting so he went for surgery to have the remnant taken
out. Recently the 2 year old began sleeping more, and then we
saw hind end weakness. With our vet we thought it was
helicobacter and put her on antibiotics and metronidazole. At
the end of the treatment we see no improvement. Sometimes she
has no use of her back legs and other times it is barely
noticeable. She is going for further tests Monday.

It seems that each ferret had something completely unrelated
to the other. The new guy (Pesto) and his anal gland problem
was an ironic addition to our troubles but was definately a
separate problem. The others though all developed with
lethargy followed by hind end weakness. I know that hind
weakness is seen in just about any ferret health problem, but
really what are the odds of this happening to three ferrets so
close in time to each other? I am going to get copies of the
pathology reports from the 2 we had to have put down to see if
there is anything that could draw a common thread between all
that has happened. Unfortunately there aren't many ferret
knowledgeable vets around here, so second opinions are
nonexistant.

For a little more detail, the 8 yr old became lethargic,
followed by hind weakness and swollen lymph nodes. It
progressed, treated with pred and force feeds for 3 months.
The 6 year old was progressively lethargic after we lost the 8
yr old. Then she showed hind weakness. Her glucose was down so
we left her in ICU on dextrose. She kept pulling out the IV so
it was a few days before we saw that it wasn't giving the
expected improvement. Later rads showed abd. masses, FNA
produced puss (helicobacter). She was a poor surgical
candidate and she was put down. The necropsies confirmed
lymphoma (8yr old) and helicobacter (6yr old). The 2 yr old
(Fig) after rebounding from ECE seemed great. She played
vigorously with Pesto. Then it declined, lethargy, shorter
periods out of the cage, then hind weakness. We thought there
was improvement during the antibiotics, but now I think it is
attributable to her fighting the meds and running away full of
p*ss and vinegar. She is unable to scratch herself with her
hind feet and sleeps a lot.

Pesto has been terrific since his surgery. He is the picture
of health. We have only had him for a little over 2 months.

Until now we have never had any health problems in the past 9
years (aside from a GI blockage surgery years ago).
There has been an ozone air purifier in the ferret room since
we moved here, but it has not been used in more than a month.

Especially after reading the post about Boric Acid, I am
becoming more paranoid that something in this apartment is
contributing to the illnesses. As I said, I am going to get
the pathology reports but if anyone has any advice on how to
go about looking for a common thread, please share it... or
ANY opinions/advice that you may have. I will post next week
when I get the results from Fig's rads and bloodwork.

Thank you,
sorry for the length
Jen