From:
tlawford@verizon.net
Date: 2005-09-25 21:02:21 UTC
Subject: cryptococcus neoformans update
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <6302771.1127682142003.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
My growing unease with how things were going was based on what appeared to=
be growth of the lump in her neck (about the size of 4-6 silver dollars s=
tacked up) getting larger after two months of itraconazole treatment. We st=
arted out on August 6 with a lump the size of 3 quarters. Hence I thought (=
wrongly so) that the fungus has been wrongly diagnosed, what is much more c=
ommon in animals is lumpy jaw, actinomysis or nocardia, very sensitive to p=
enicillen. Took her back to my exotics vet who explained that real lumpy ja=
w is actually IN the jaw bone eroding it, and her x-rays showed that this w=
as definitely not in the bone, it was external. He then felt the lump and s=
aid "mostly fluid, lets aspirate it". Stuck in a 20 gauge butterfly pulling=
out 5 cc of straw colored fluid. Now the lump was the size of two quarters=
. Hallelujah ! So the itraconazole is working after all over two months, s=
lowly but surely. The medication has been formulated in strong vanilla flav=
or at 50 mg / cc. She has 0.85 cc once a day and actually doesnt seem to m=
ind the taste of it. However it does take her appetite away for 4 hours. I=
had liver enzymes drawn yesterday just to be sure that this high dose is n=
ot being hepatotoxic. (I can be in humans occasionally.) Her dose costs $13=
8/month, and I am anticipating about 8 months of this. 42.5 mg in a 3 poun=
d animal translates upward to 2100 mg in a 150 pound human, which is actual=
ly 5 times what a human would be given for this. i.e. a whopping dose. Gott=
a talk with the vet about that. I am hoping that it is not raising the live=
r enzymes, we will know in a few days. I only found 7 cases of this in fer=
rets on an internet search.
One wonders how a ferret would get this. I think it was from my back deck. =
Each ferret of the 18 I have had since 1990 has found a "Sweet spot" in t=
he house which they posses at theirs, and just love to revel in their swee=
t spot. For Cokey it is the second floor back deck.After sunset when it coo=
ls she likes to go out there and get in a pile of dried leaves on her back =
all 4 paws up, yawn, stretch, scratch her back, snooze, and just look like =
she is in 7th heaven for about an hour. Lots of bird poop out there, and t=
hat is a known carrier of coccidio. I have had it power washed for her bene=
fit, and gotten her a fresh batch of dried leaves from another locus.. The=
things we are willing to do for our sweet little fuzzies.
Hope no one in this group actually has a need for this info.
Cheers Tom
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