From:
dr_bruce_williams
Date: 2002-06-26 03:39:00 UTC
Subject:
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "mustelidmom" <ldoran@u...> wrote:
> Hi, everyone.
>
> ulcers and an e-mail from another lady whose ferret had similar
> symptoms and eventually died of IBD. The vet seemed to be pretty
> farmiliar with IBD already and he could feel lots of gas bubbles in
> Moose's intestines. He examined Moose's stool under a microscope
and
> said he found epithelial cells sloughed off from his intestines as
> well as a lot of yeast. He thinks the yeast is probably a secondary
> problem but is having me administer Nystatin once a day for that in
> addition to Clavamox, metronidazole, and Kaopectate (or Pepto-
Bismol -
> - my choice) twice daily for the intestinal disorder.
Yeast in the feces is not a sign of disease - it is a normal finding
and not worthy of treatment. Use of Nystatin is not indicated inthis
case.
Also the diagnosis of IBD is only made through intestinal biopsy.
The tests of finding epithelial cells in feces or feeling gas bubbles
inthe intestine are not diagnostic for IBD, and should not be
considered as evidence of the presence or absence of this condition.
He says there is evidence of liver
> infections in ferrets based on a conversation with a well-known
> ferret vet and that liver infections can cause intestinal problems.
That is a bit backwards - you may see changes ascending formthe
intestine to the liver, but not vice versa - while I do not remember
the values you gave for the liver enzymes, unless they exceed 1000
(ALT) I don't think that a liver biopsy is really necessary in this
case.
I
> would much rather just do an intestinal biopsy via endoscopy
because
> it's less invasive. This vet does not have a small enough device to
> do endoscopy in a ferret, so we would be looking at major surgery.
Intestinal and liver biopsy is not really a major surgery -
exploratory laparotomy is required, but is very well tolerated in
most ferets.
> I'm concerned about that -- if anyone knows of a vet in New Mexico
> who can do a ferret endoscopy, I'd like to know about him/her -- and
> I'm also wondering if it would be better to try Imuran before doing
a
> biopsy at all.
It is always better to diagnose this condition before
immunosuppressing an animal unnecessarily with Immuran.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM