From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2007-12-26 17:06:25 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Mouth Ulcer
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
There is a form of allergic reaction (or immune mediated reaction) which causes dermal
necrosis, but it is highly UNlikely. If more develop or if this is close to the throat then the
vet could consider this extremely rare possibility and try to halt it. It is not something a
person wants to progress into the throat because that can become critical.
More likely are causes like fistula from an infection (gum or sinus), injury (including
possibly from a very, very rapid intubation if your ferret needed that to live in which case
treating a little pain for a good result is okay), or kidney disease.
Have the vet see it. If it is not one to worry about then a bit of regular Listerine on a
cotton swab held against it will decrease discomfort and will promote healing; that is a
trick we learned from our vet here in central NJ.
I guess that in 26 years I have heard of two cases in 26 years where Stevens Johnson
Syndrome (allergic dermal necrosis) was wondered about in ferrets but neither was proven
to have that cause, One didn't have pathology and I can't recall about the other. During
my lifetime I think I have only known maybe three people who went through it, definitely
two, at least. Stevens Johnson is pretty much the rare of the rare. You know how Dr.
Bruce Williams says "When you hear hoofbeats don't first think 'zebras'?" Well, this would
amount to thinking "Okapis" if I correctly recall rarity... Or maybe "Pygmy Elephants" if we
aren't going to be picky about the word "hoof"...
In Stevens Johnson the reactions do not necessarily happen immediately. In some cases
days may occur between. Skin or mucus membrane begins to die in patches. Sometimes
eyes are involved. Severity depends on location (with areas of mucus membrane like the
throat or intestines being especially bad).
Even among humans it is very rare. I have definitely known only two people who had such
reactions and one was under dire stress -- she was in her weeks being hospitalized in her
special clean-room during the needed follow-up stage of a marrow transplant that
happened about a half year after the initial weeks in that situation, and reacted. In her
case her reaction was fatal. For humans a marrow transplant from a donor is not a simple
process unless the world has shifted on its axis in that regard since a decade ago. The
other person is a relation whose sloughing was luckily minor but can not have some meds
now.
Here is some info, BUT AGAIN I DOUBT THIS EMERGENCY IS WHAT IS OCCURRING but am
providing this info just in case the rare of the rare might be possible for this ferret:
http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic555.htm
http://www.sjsupport.org/
SJS has been documented in dogs:
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1748-5827.2004.tb00248.x?
cookieSet=1&journalCode=jsap
An SJS bibliography:
http://www.icongrouponline.com/Health/Stevens-Johnson_Syndrome_Ph.html
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