From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2003-12-14 18:43:18 UTC
Subject: RE: Question
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5567483.1071427398030.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
This past vet post on possible causes may help you:
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG5675
In part it reads:
>The pathologist made the most likely call here - especially if there was a
>lot of steatitis. Whenever there is leakage from the gut lumen into either
>the wall of the gut or the abdominal cavity, pyogranulomatous inflammation
>- a combination of neutrophils, macrophages, and lymphocytes is usually
>what occurs. You can see this after recent surgery, with a response to suture
>material, some fungal infections, and Mycobacterium avium, although the
>last two should demonstrate the presence of organisms with special stains.
It does pay to do the special stains. We had a worry that one of our's may have picked up Mycobacterium avium (bird tuberculosis) which is very wide-spread among wild birds but usually contracted by compromised exposed ferrets rather than healthy ones. She hadn't and had a different overwhelming infection, but I do recall the special tests beign run on her samples after the first round of tests.
i am not a vet, but the post above and the one mentioned below are by a vet pathologist who is a ferret specialist.
A search on steatis also brings up this sepsis post:
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG12283
from a vet
at http://www.ferretcongress.org
which is a very helpful resource (FHL list archives)