From:
fiveweezils@hotmail.com
Date: 2005-02-28 21:51:58 UTC
Subject: lupus or pemphigus?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5324921.1109627518269.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
For a year now my 8 year old female Miesa has had a bump on her side. My vet indicated it was a sign of stress due to pain from her eyes. She has cataracts in both eyes. Back in the fall she started losing fur around the little blister spot. In the last month or so an area about the size of a silver dollar has lost all its fur and started looking scaly. At the same time, two of the toes on her front left foot started looking dirty and scaly, as well as a little swollen. As all this was happening, her favorite ferret friend died. She became very lethargic, most of which I attributed to grief. She has been eating and drinking well, as well as pooping normally. Miesa is eight years old, came from a breeder and was a late alter. Other than her eyes, she has never had any health problems to speak of. No insulinoma. No adrenal.
I took her to my vet and after testing her skin and running a full blood work up, he indicated that he thought she might have lupus. I've never heard of ferret lupus before. Sukie sent me some of the past posts about pemphigus as another alternative. Are we on the right track here? The vet started her on dexamethasone. She's getting 0.4 ccs in the morning and 0.3ccs at night. We started that last Thursday. She is definitely peppier already.
Is there anything else I should be doing? Given that either way the solution is steroid dosage, do I need to definitly know if it is lupus or pemphigus?
thanks,
Anne