From:
Chelsey Baker-Hauck
Date: 2006-05-30 20:01:46 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Severe contact allergy
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
My 3-year-old neutered male "Rocky" recently developed a severe (and
worsening) contact allergy. His head/face swells and becomes very
red, and during the most recent episode, he began hypersalivating. No
GI problems. His blood tests were clearly indicative of an allergic
reaction, the vet said. Rocky showed an immediate improvement w/a
steroid shot. He's now on a 2-week tapering dose of prednisone.
Here's my question: How do we isolate the allergen causing this? (The
vet is not recommending allergy testing--no good tests for this type
of allergy in ferrets?) We suspect it's something in Nutrical, since
he had that preceding the allergy episodes. (The rest of the ferrets
are having the occasional Nutrical treat w/no problems.) But, WHAT in
the Nutrical? I thought soy at first, but read the labels of other
ferret treats, etc., that he gets, and soy was in just about
everything--all things he eats w/out problems. Since we think it's
the Nutrical, it's easy to avoid giving that. And since we stopped,
there haven't been any more problems. I'm afraid, though, without
knowing exactly what it is, he could come across the allergen in some
other type of product or food. The vet warns that since this allergy
seems to be escalating, it could become life threatening if he's
continually exposed to it. I haven't been able to "ferret out" the
allergen by comparing ingredient labels.
I've had ferrets with environmental allergies before (e.g. pollen and
dust), but nothing like this.
Does anyone have experience with severe allergies like this? Or,
experience with testing ferrets for specific allergens?
Thanks,
Chelsey and Rocky
cbaker@du.edu
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