Message Number: FHL6466 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Sukie Crandall
Date: 2008-10-23 18:13:46 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Wet Cough
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>

Okay, let's look in PubMed to see if there is any juried journal
article about this.

Hmmm, none with the combo of pneumonia ferret adrenal, so I'll see
what comes up with just ferret pneumonia though there will be a number
since they are used in the study of some lung diseases, so I'll just
sort by what they were studying in relation to pneumonia in ferrets.

Okay: here is how the journal articles break down
but I don't have time to open all to find out which ones don't mention
the illnesses in ferrets at all except for related references.

Coronaviruses (the FIP-like illness, Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome, etc.)
3
Influenza and secondary bacterial infections
11
Canine parainfluenza Virus
1
Pacemaker implantation for complete A/V heartblock
1
Mycobacterium abcessus
1
Cryptococcosis
1
Aspiration Pneumonia
1
Pneumocystis carnii or Pneumocystosis
32
Canine Distemper
1
"Functional consequences of species differences in lung anatomy"
1
Metastatic Papillary Cystadenocarcinoma of the mammary gland
1
Halothan Anesthesia impairing pulmonary antibacterial defense mechanisms
1

The article you found says:

In ferrets, pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis is seen in animals on
long-termcorticosteroid therapy or with the diagnosis of
hyperadrenocorticism.

so back to PubMed

where I will see what types of creatures come up with a search of
juried journal articles on a search of

Pneumocystis hyperadrenocorticism

Human(s) with Cushings
9
Appears to be about a human (abstract lacking but non-human species
not mentioned and journal a human health one and I didn't find it
elsewhere to check)
3 (2 mentioning Cushings)
Human adrenal carcinoma and pneumocystis
1

There were NO non-human results: none

Also, notice that Cushings, which is vastly different from the adrenal
syndrome ferrets get was in virtually all.

For
Pneumocystis adrenal veterinary

The only result was a 3 month old Swiss foal

So, while the author of the article might have had some personal
observations it does not appear that they were studied and reported
upon. Alternatively, there may have been an editing problem -- NOT AN
UNUSUAL DIFFICULTY WHEN THE EDITORS ARE NOT EXOTICS VETS THEMSELVES
(having even seen that in a vet text). The vet may have originally
written something which clearly stated that the observation was in
another species, but the editor may have altered that.

So, I guess until we all learn more there is reason to take the
statement as it was written with a grain of salt.

Some steroids do reduce the activity of the immune system which can
make an individual more likely to get infections of many types.
Allergy patients know this about their meds if their allergies are
serious, for example. For some illnesses with cytokine storms such as
DIM that immune response reduction is desired, though for some other
things that steroids get used for (ex. Prednisolone for insulinoma) it
is an annoying side effect. BTW, the amount of the steroids that are
used to avoid Addisons in a ferret are usually very low, and low
levels have minimal negative effects. On the other hand, a ferret
with severe IBD or advanced insulinoma may be on high levels.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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