From:
"celebrateoften"
Date: 2008-04-30 01:36:00 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Coccidiosis and gastritis in Ethiopia -- need advice
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Hello FHL --
I am living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. My ferrets have been here
since 12/24/07 -- approx 4 months.
They took the trip from San Francisco to Addis well -- as soon as
they were released from their carriers, they began dooking and war
dancing.
THey were healthy and happy until 4.5 weeks ago, until, one by one
three succumbed to what we believe to be coccidia, probably
complicated by gastritis.
[Moderator's question: tests done? Was coccidia found or guessed?]
Shortly after the one got sick, the other 5 developed liquid stools.
We treated them all with sulfa, and the stools normalized
immediately;
we continued treatment for 10 days (1st day 1 ml, .5 for the
remaining 9).
[Moderator's question: what is the concentration (mg/ml)?
the mg amount is ultimately what matters.]
However, we lost the sick ferret, Robert. He seemed to be recovering
very well -- his black stools were approaching something like normal
color and consistency, and he was more alert and played a little.
Then he took a turn for the worse and never recovered.
Robert's treatment was .25 Amoxycillin (the pink suspension) 3 x
day, 1 ml of the sulfa 3xday, plus sub Q hydration, a stomach coater, an
iron syrup, force-feeding, and on his last day prednisole.
[Moderator's questions: again, we have to be able to figure out the
mg amount so what are the concentrations? What stomach coater
was used? Ingredients? Prednisolone? Prednisone? Mg amount?]
The third ferret, Artie, went through the same course of symptoms
and the same treatment, except that we also gave him biaxin injections
3xday. He had what seemed to be a very good recovery -- much more so
than Robert, and I was certain he would live -- but had a downturn
without recovery.
The first ferret, Ada, was very sick before I knew she was sick. I
was occupied with business out of the house, and the other people in the
house thought to protect me from worry by waiting to see if her
diarrhea and then black diarrhea got better... But though she was
very sick, even she had enough of a recovery that I thought she might
make it.
We necropsied Ada and Artie. Both had digested blood in their
intestines but all other organs were fine, except for Ada, whose
stomach showed little tears and spots that our vet, Dr [name removed as
per rules], considered to be hemhorraging. From what I remember, Artie's
stomach was unremarkable, but we could have overlooked something.
I cannot remember where in her intestines Ada's digested blood was.
Artie's was from his colon to his duodenum -- the upper intestine
was essentially clear.
To my horror, a fourth ferret, Rico, has been showing signs. We
think we have the coccidia under control -- we have a new brand of the
sulfa, Bactrim, made in Germany. The other ferrets got a sulfa made
in India. Dr X thinks the first drug might not have been potent
enough.
Rico's first symptoms were lethargy and loose stools, at which point
we started him and the two other ferrets on the Bactrim (1 ml first
day, followed by .5 ml/day). Now Rico is lively, playing, and looks
completely healthy. However, last night he had loose stools and this
morning he had greenish mucoid stools. Not watery.
[It was when Artie (the third ferret) had green-grey watery stools
that we called Dr X and began his treatment. Sadly, Artie had
had "banana puddding" stools before the green ones, and we should
have started his treatment immediately.]
Ada and Artie were almost 4. Robert was 4. Rico is 4.
Rico has been getting the Bacrim for a week. On seeing the loose
stools and then green stools, I called Dr X. We shall now add
Helio mustela treatment. I am giving him stomach coater and Amoxy.
The Amoxy is old, and Dr X will bring a new bottle, plus clarithromycin.
THIS IS HUMAN CLARITHROMYCIN IN TABLET FORM.
WHAT DOSAGE, FREQUENCY, INTERVAL DO YOU RECOMMEND?
WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER DRUGS?
DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS?
Rico is not dehydrated.
As you can imagine, I am beside myself, and right now I'm very
fearful that Rico will also go through a downturn. Dr X thinks we
might have a particularly toxic coccidia here -- we are in the sub
tropics. We also think that we have a combination of coccidia and
gastritis.
But basically we are at a terrible loss here. Dr X is a skilled and
intuitive vet, intelligent and a good observer, but he is new to
ferrets. There are no vet labs here -- no way to analyze blood,
stools, etc. Also no xrays, ultrasounds, etc -- essentially there is
almost nothing here for vets to rely on for diagnosis.
Today Dr X prevailed on a human lab to analyze the green stool. It
is very difficult to get cooperation from human labs. We hope to get
results tomorrow.
We hope to get Dr X a visa to come to the US this June to get some
experience w ferrets and w modern diagnostic and treatment equipt
and methods.
We plan to start a lab ourselves here, plus later a modern treatment
clinic. No gas anesthesia here, as you can imagine. Dr X's practice
is mainly cats and dogs and some large animals.
I will post another message about this trip and will be asking for
invitations for Dr X to visit, observe, and experience some of
the use of modern equipment and methods. Also of course, [Section
removed as a violation of FHL Rules. If curious ask the poster
directly -- Moderator]
I have been having a lot of trouble w Yahoo, but have finally gotten
on board here on the FHL.
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