From:
"Erin"
Date: 2006-12-18 23:29:01 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Major find/Question-unknown illness!?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
About a year ago I adopted a older little girl named Buffy. After
she was with us about a month I noticed some soft yucky stools from
her. I took a fresh sample from the newspaper to my vet to see what
they found. They did a float and looked under a microscope. Nothing
at that time was found. I also noticed her stools looked worse after
soup. Thinking she was not yet used to my home and foods, I let it go
for about 2 weeks. Then Buffy got really yellow nasty poos and I
decided to take her to the vet. She was all ready small and seemed to
have lost weight. This time my vet collected stool from Buffy with a
Task. With a glace under the scope he said she had a pretty bad case
of Coccidia. Since my ferrets sleep, eat and play together I chose
to treat them all. No one else had nasty stool like her though. We
did a 2 week treatment of liquid Albon. I saw improvement with in a
few short days. I also called the shelter where I adopted her and
explained what had been found. At that time the shelter expressed
that they had a few to have these yucky stools. They had several
stools already taken to the vet and nothing had been found. They were
doing the guessing game believing they may have had few cases of IBD.
I explained what my vet had said about the 'Blooms' process Coccidia
goes through. So The shelter also got some liquid Albon and treated
the whole bunch. Also note that myself and shelter did everything
possible to clean and sterilize during the treatment.
A couple months went by and then I noticed Buffy once again started
with some yellowish yucky stools. I took her back to my vet. They
ran more stool floats found nothing. I also tested a few other of my
ferrets in case one was not in a 'Bloom' at that time. We even sent
of for Giardia tests. Nothing was found in any of them. I really
started to think Buffy may have gotten IBD from the Coccidia she
had . Some studies suggest that can happen. I tried several things
like not giving treats. More soup, Turkey soup. She would continue to
have nasty stool about =BD the time.
During all that time the shelter had several cases of these yuck
stools pop up. It was never all at once. A few at time. Mostly
older ,3 years and above. In some cases the diarrhea got so bad that
even SubQing was not helping. Several medications had been tried.
Pepto, Carafete, Amoxil, Clavomox and several of the other typical
for `stomach ` related illness. A few ferrets even died. Some ferrets
showed improvement. Some would get a little better for short periods
of time and then start all over again. Some of the best vets were
seen. Blood work, and stools were turned in. At one point one of the
stools showed 2 Coccidia cysts in a float. However not all the
ferrets proved positive to have it. And such a small trace amount
did not seem likely to have caused such bad symptoms. A lot of
people were saying ECE. But there were so many of the typical signs
missing. Most importantly is that it took several months for the
illness to spread . ECE is supposed to be quick with it's on set.=20
Never were there bright green poos like what most see, in any of the
ferrets. A lot of the yellowish seedy, mucous type. And None of the
typical medications for ECE had helped either. Trust me we both tried
it.
Finally after a few months, prolonged meds, and few horrible loses.
The `yuck' seemed to pass. During that time the shelter was having a
lot of personal hurdles. The choice to move the shelter and all it's
remaining ferrets into my home was maid. I live in humble 3 bedroom
home so the shelter kids were going to have house in the same room
with 3 new kits I rescued. They did not share play times, just air
space. My older ferrets were kept in a separate room, same home.=20
During the next month a important necropsy/ pathology report came
back on one of the sickest the shelter had lost. For the most part (
I can send you a copy) the report said all the body tissue showed
signs that the ferret had been ill with a chronic Corona virus at
some point in life. So the vet was quick to say ECE. However we all
know there are a couple thousand Corona viruses out there. And why
had the ferret not responded to even the most aggressive ECE
treatments.? The vet said the shelter should wait 6 months before
exposing any new ferrets to the group. It would take about 6 months
for them to rid themselves of this bug.
Well as fate would have it, about a week or so before we had this
report, I had moved my babies into my ferret room. Had nice new cages
and all. I had also fell madly in love with 2 shelter kids and took
them into my group. The shelter had figured it had been about 5
months since any illness had been seen . All I could do was cross my
fingers. It had been a week, so I was thinking either I was really
lucky, or it was not ECE because all my kids were fine. Then almost
another week later I started finding dark green, mucous filled stools
off and on. 4 of my older ferrets were making the worst and 2
others were about =BD as bad and not as often. These stools were not
like diarrhea in the sense of several non-stop stools a day. More
along that when they did have a stool, it was bad =BD the time. It did
not smell really awful, just a more noticeable `not normal' smell.=20=20
I had also introduced a new kibble into my mix. I was thinking they
were just making a adjustment. I hoped any way.
The worst mine to suffer was Buffy. She was about 5 years old at this
time. She was losing weight and lost mobility in her hind quarters.
We thought insulin , or a side effect of a old hip injury she had in
a accident. I took her for blood work and her BG was normal, but her
BUN level was really high. Some people suggested renal failure. My
vet was favoring dehydration, so we SubQed her. We sent off more
stool also. Still nothing showed in the work ups. The vet recommended
Prednisone, Flagyl(sp?) and even some Pepto. And for a few days she
seemed to feel better. We even looked at her blood values again and=20
her BUN had returned to normal. Glucose was still good. And then one
morning I found her looking very ill. She was barely awake and cold
to my touch. In my heart of hearts I knew she dying and I didn't want
her to suffer. So put her to rest that day. Since her blood and
stool had not really given a clear cut reason, I just figured she
most likely had been ill with some cancer we never found. It really
bothered me to not know why.=20
Meanwhile I took the new kibble out of my mix. I even stopped giving
treats. My 3 kits were perfectly normal in every way. My 2 new
adoption were fairly young too. 6 and 8 months old. They were also
normal in every way. 2 that had had been with the most rare of yucky
poo were looking just about normal ( Lily and Porche). I was
noticing 1 male ( Fizban) was losing weight. His stools has been
among the 3 with the worst. He lost 4 ounces. Another older female
had developed a large lump in her belly (Winni). She was also acting
lethargic. I figured that it had to be her spleen. She started to
pass very yuck poo. Then she vomited and started to grind teeth and
moan when she tried to potty. She went to the vet the first AM. I
took her for blood work, stool tests, what ever they were going to
need to do. My vet found the same as Buffy. A very bad Bun level.
Her glucose was also very high in this case. He is new to ferrets so
he really felt is was he pancreas that was swollen. I was to scared
to put her under for a exploratory. So my vet gave her fluids and
injection with Baytril and another Penicillin type antibiotics. I
put her on Amoxil and a bland diet. We continued to SubQ her for the
next few days. She seemed to be getting better at this point.=20
During this time I looked for help at the state college. I knew I
needed more experienced help. The college directed to us to new vet
that had just opened run by their former exotics expert. So off we
went. He ran another blood work up on my girl Winni. Her BUN level
had gotten much better. In fact she looked normal at this point. She
had even stated to eat on her own and pass better stools.=20
Unfortunately he couldn't say what had caused her to fall so ill.
Only to keep doing what I was doing. He also clarified that it was
her spleen that had enlarged. He said it really wasn't chronic in
size. And was normal when fighting a bad infection. She seemed okay
for almost 2 weeks. Her big spleen even went away. Then another blow
hit.
My boy that had lost the weight (Fizban)started passing black
stools. His breath was awful. My shelter friend helped me to
immediately start Ulcer protocol. We put him on Carafete and Amoxil.
Baby food only. After about 3 days his stools were not black any
more. Then about a week after that I found the 3rd (Dawson) of the
worst with these still =BD the time dark green or yellow seedy poos in
what seemed to a seizure. So we treated him with some prednisone and
soup. My shelter friend is all to familiar with insulin , so we just
took it from there.=20
Back tracking a bit. ( sorry that what happens when you have several
ferrets I guess) one of the oldest guys (Zeus) had been diagnosed
with Lymphoma when Buffy was still sick. So during all this we knew
he was ill and not going to get better. He also had really dark
green nasty poos. But I found several web sites that say that is very
typical of Lymphoma positive ferrets.
It was about then I notice Zeus was losing weight and not staying
hydrated. He was having nasty dark green poos more frequently. I just
didn't think putting him through the ringer was fair. We all ready
knew he had Lymphoma. So I put him to rest as well. At this point I
was really stressing. What the h*ll was going on? On the brighter
side, my ulcer boy (Fizban) was putting on weight, Eating great and
stools looking much better.
And then the unthinkable. My little older girl (Winni) that had the
enlarged spleen, Relapsed into illness.
It was the same, except her spleen did not enlarge this time. She had
nasty yellow poo, no appitite,grinding teeth. I was at a loss. In
last hope my shelter friend advised me to put Winni on the Carafete
and Clarithromycin. I also put her on Duck and Rabbit pureed food. It
took about 3 days before I was sure she was getting better. She
stressed if I tried to feed her meds straight and would vomit them
back up. I had to hide them in her new soup very well. But finally
she improved. She has been off the antibiotics for about 2 weeks. I
still give her Carafete 2 times a day and her bland soup. She has
even played with me a couple times. I am really praying she will
pull through what ever this is. And so far it is important to note
that all mine under 2 years have not been sick.
SO in conclusion. I have seen several shelters and Foster whisper
about the very same problem. A unknown intestinal upset. A lot of
people think it's viral. But it doesn't respond to the typical
treatments. It seems to come back in many cases.
I thumb through my Merck book and find this Mink Enteritis. In many
ways it sounds a lot like what we have been dealing with. We see that
evidence supports that ADV, ECE came from Mink first. Then did what
viruses do, and found a new way to invade a new host. This Mink
virus is a parvo virus. Not identical but related to feline
panleukopenia. And this year mention was maid that some experts
feel Lymphoma is cause by the side effect of ECE, chronic Coccidia,
ect. And what I found very interesting is that MANY of the Corona
virus and the Mink Enteritis multiply and invade in the Lymph Nodes.=20
I am not so worried about the `Name' of this evil bug, but the cure.
Or just the best treatment.
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:ferrethealth-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:ferrethealth-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ferrethealth-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/