From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-01-23 18:20:47 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Mystery Infection
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <7106211.1106504447482.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
BTW, because the puss from the nodes, the rapid start, and the up and down high fever sounds like this might be the mystery infection under study for the last two years this person has been sent the contact info to give her vet on both groups which are studying the mysery disease/DIM. Each is trying different approaches so it is important for both groups to have as many potentially relevant samples as possible (and it would be good to have more samples from before antibiotics are used) because making sure that both groups have samples and histories increases the chances of find finding the cause. A member of one of the study groups has told me that she is also trying to get a veterinary epidemiologist involved. The disease has some unusual distribution aspects such as not (or not symptomatically) infecting multiple members of a household even while it clumps regionally and temporaly.
One of the clinicians who is also involved in the experimental treatments of these ferrets let me know last night after my heads-up to the relevant people that he had writen to the poster immediately, so information will get to the treating vet.
Is this the same disease? It's too soon to tell, but it might be. There have been some cases which were not the same disease. Some of the things originally thought to have maybe been this but weren't have included: other causes of sepsis, menigitis, canine distemper, etc.