From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-08-19 16:24:18 UTC
Subject: RE: Possible case of DIM in shelter...Advice please!
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5271829.1124468658561.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Yes, Joan is right that the one she encountered is very unlikely to have been DIM.
I was just talking again this morning with Dr. Katrina Ramsell of SW Animal Hospital in Oregon who is the individual coordinating the various tries of medical approaches for this disease. To date there are still not survivors of proven cases of this disease. There were two who did not have have the pathology testing done (muscle biopsy by either NW Zoopath or Michigan State since Doctors Mike Garner and Matti Kiupel are the pathologists currently studying this disease). Sadly, despite those two medical approaches being tried on a series of other victims (proven cases) the approaches did not work, so it is likely that they had some milder cause of sepsis.
I can pass on contact info for all three of these individuals to anyone encountering this disease and to curious vets.
As per communications a few days ago Dr. Williams is considering when his schedule will/may allow him to rejoin the effort, but that still may be a while which is why people are still asked to, please, not assume that he will have the time for such tissues at this point, but instead to ask. The AFIP personnel are at this point still very short on time.
Sadly, there have been some situations in which it was incorrectly thought that there was already an effective medical protocol for this disease which led to insufficient testing and to ferrets being given med combos that are now known to not work.
Some things which are not DIM but have been found in some suspected cases have included: other causes of sepsis, Juvenile Lymphoma, meningitis, Canine Distemper, some I am sure also other things that skip my mind right now.
This is a disease which involves a "cytokine storm" (too massive an immune response -- causing its own series of problems that can too easily be fatal) in ferrets who are juveniles or in their primes. I have been told that it is safe to use that term at this stage in the knowledge. (If ferrets who are older get this it may be that since their immune systems are weaker they may have silent infections or far milder infections, but only the needed muscle biopsies could tell.) Ferrets come from a range of origins, and as of my last communication with the pathologists no postulated causes have been proven but that was a few months ago. To date I have heard of no household with more than one case even though the disease clumps regionally and temporally. My impression following this for several years is that these clumps are more common in warm weather but have happened in cold (including the first reported one).
Hopefully, this is clear enough; I've been working sick for a few days.
I hope that this helps.
(BTW, the person with the shelter ferret and her vet do have the contact info and have for some time.)
FYI: with this disease the white cell counts go so high that when it was first being studied the vets kept repeating that they didn't even know that such levels could be compatible with life in ferrets. Our Chicklet went over 35,000 in her six weeks with it two years ago and I have heard of much higher counts since. The white cell levels have been higher than those seen with lymphoma/lymphosarcoma in many of these ferrets.
End of ferrethealth Digest
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