From:
"Randy Ferret Aid"
Date: 2007-05-31 13:01:04 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Strange
To: <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
Hiya friends. Our shelter is going through some sort of strange phenomenon.
Over the last month, we've lost a few ferrets to something strange. It all
started about a month and a half ago. One of our foster mom's rang me one
night telling me she was worried one of her foster kids, Tyke had a
blockage. I sent her to our emergency vet.
The vet did surgery the following morning on Tyke but didn't find any
blockage. She took out an enlarged adrenal and the ferret came back to the
foster the following day. Shortly after, he began to leak white-ish fluid
from his incision site. Another trip to a local vet determined it was
lymphatic fluid. Nothing we did stopped it from leaking but it eventually
stopped on its own.
About 2 or so weeks later, our foster mom's personal ferret had to be put to
sleep. She had adrenal disease (despite 2 surgeries) and cardiomyopathy. Her
abdomen filled with lymphatic fluid and though it was drained once, it came
back fast (confirmed by histo).
Then 3 weeks ago, another foster mom rang me with the sad news of Tilly.
Tilly had been through a lot and again was being faced with issues. Her
belly was filling with lymphatic fluid too (confirmed by histo). Tilly went
through 3 or 4 draining before we decided we couldn't keep torturing her and
she too was euthanized.
Just the other day, a family dumped a little guy on us. Pierre's abdomen was
swollen, just like the other 3 ferrets in our care. He too was euthanized
due to lymphatic fluid build up in his abdomen.
Though Tyke is still with us, his belly is filling up with fluid again. The
vet suspects he won't be with us for a whole lot longer. We've done a
necropsy with Tilly and though it's been 3 weeks, we're STILL waiting for
results. We will also be sending samples to U of MI of the latest death
(Pierre) today to rule out any possibilities of FIP (though wet hasn't been
seen in ferrets as far as I know).
What we have noticed is that all the ferrets that have died have been older
and all had other ailments. Tyke is younger (about 3ish) and he has fought
this for a time.
Could this all be a coincidence as our Ontario University says or could this
be a virus that we need to worry about? ANYONE go through this? ANY
veterinary advice? For now, until we know what's going on, 3 of our foster
homes are under quarantine. That means 10 ferrets (plus personals) could
have been exposed if this is a virus. ANY advice is much appreciated and
please cross fingers and toes this is just a very strange coincidence.
Thanks all!!!
Miss Randy Melanie Belair
President
The Ferret Aid Society
www.ferretaid.org <http://www.ferretaid.org/>
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http://www.ferretaid.org/events/ferret_aid_2006.html
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